A Certain Misplaced Railgun (Index/Railgun X MCU)

[Mayor Haggar]

"Why're you even following me, anyway?!" Mikoto Misaka shouted, annoyed as always by Shokuhou Misaki, the 'Queen' of Tokiwadai Middle School. The golden-haired girl with star markings on her eyes was gasping for breath and complaining about how fast Misaka was running, but still stubbornly continued to tag along behind her.

"I don't…need to explain myself…to you!" the other girl wheezed. Mikoto grunted, shook her head and continued to run.

"I'm not slowing down just because you can't keep up!" she warned. "I can't let him get away!"

"Neither…can…I!" Misaki said breathlessly.

Some creepy hooded figure had been lurking around Tokiwadai, and a bit of observation had convinced Mikoto that he or she was from the magic side. She didn't know why they were in Academy City or why they had been creeping around Tokiwadai, but they couldn't have been up to any good. The way they'd fled as soon as Misaka made her presence known only confirmed it in her mind. Whatever their purpose, she was going to get to the bottom of it and stop them.

Unfortunately this person was no slouch with their magic and had used it to successfully shield themselves from her signature railgun attack. That had left her with no choice but to pursue them on foot and make sure she didn't lose sight of them while she tried to figure out another way to take them down. Their chase had led them past Misaki, who for some reason had decided to join her in chasing after the hooded magician. Mikoto wished the girl would just go away. She was no athlete, and her power was useless with no other people around to mentally manipulate. Whatever; she didn't have time to worry about why the Queen was tagging along. She had a suspicious intruder to deal with.

Misaka was so preoccupied with her pursuit that she almost stumbled right into the strange swirling black hole that had suddenly materialized in the gap between her and the magician. She successfully stopped in her tracks, instinctually realizing that getting caught in that would be very bad news. But even though she'd stopped, her body continued to be pulled closer to the hole. It was like the hole was a vacuum sucking her in, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

"What is this?!" she shouted, feeling panic beginning to seep in. Was she about to die?!

In her desperation, she used her ability to call real lightning down from the sky directly above the hole, hoping it would destroy or at least diminish the hole. It was a misplaced hope. The hole was completely unaffected by the lightning strike, and Mikoto continued to be sucked in towards the darkness.

"Guh!" Electricity surged through her body, but it did nothing to stop the continual pull that drew her closer and closer to the hole by the second. As she got closer, her entire body started to feel cold.

Mikoto's body shivered, and she shut her eyes against the chilling darkness that was overtaking her. She heard a panicked scream from the usually cocky Misaki, and then Mikoto Misaka was wholly consumed by the dark energy, disappearing from Academy City without a trace.

--

'…What happened? Where am i?'

Mikoto blinked her eyes open, wincing at the sudden brightness and trying to shield her face with her hand. She shook her head, disoriented and out of sorts, and slowly climbed to her feet. She looked around, confused at the unfamiliar surroundings she now found herself in. She knew the layout of Academy City very well in her opinion, and the buildings she was looking at didn't fit with anything she'd seen.

"Ugh…my head."

Misaka's head whipped around at the sound of a familiar voice. The Queen was slower to get to her feet, but she got there anyhow. Seeing her rival triggered Misaka's short term memory, and her eyes widened as it all came back to her: the magician, the chase, and the hole that sucked her up.

"Where the hell are we?" she asked, hoping it wasn't obvious how nervous she was.

"I don't know," the other girl admitted. There was no trace of her normal playfulness in her voice, and her usual arrogant smile was nowhere to be seen. She too realized the severity of their current situation. "But it can't be Academy City."

"No," Misaka agreed, turning her head away from the blonde and looking around, hoping she'd see something that would give her some sort of clue. "I don't know what that hole was, but it definitely sent us somewhere outside the city."

"It doesn't look like he or she came here with us, either," Misaki pointed out. Mikoto could only shake her head angrily at the evident truth in that. Not only had she failed to stop the intruder, but they'd sent her away to somewhere outside Academy City. She'd failed completely. Now it'd probably be up to Touma to clean up her mess, just like he always seemed to do for her and everyone else when things were at their worst.

All thoughts of Touma, the magician or anything else were pushed to the background when she heard a piercing scream somewhere off in the distance. Countless more followed, and those weren't the only sounds she could hear. It was indistinct and hard to tell, but she was pretty sure those loud booms were some sort of explosion or gunfire. Immediately she went on alert. Maybe the magician was here after all, or maybe they'd been thrown straight into a different threat. Either way, she needed to be on her guard.

"Where are you going?" Misaki asked as she started to jog away. "You're walking straight into whatever is going on!"

"Of course I am!" she said, continuing to jog. "It's the only way I'm going to find out what's happening!"

"I won't be joining you," the blonde said. "I don't do well on the front lines, and I'm not about to march into what sounds like a battlefield without the slightest clue of what's going on."

Misaka continued to jog and didn't bother to respond. She'd never asked for the other girl to follow her in the first place, and she didn't need her help now either. If The Queen wanted to lurk in the background like usual then she was welcome to do so. She would've only slowed Mikoto down anyway.

Mikoto had been fairly certain she was jogging straight onto a battlefield, but her eyes still widened when she got close enough to be able to see what was actually happening. Men, women and children were running through the streets, fleeing in terror from some sort of weird humanoid alien army. She sprang into action without even really thinking about it, pulling an arcade token from her pocket and firing her railgun at one of the attackers. It was a non-lethal shot; just enough to knock it out so it couldn't keep assaulting people.

She could see she wasn't the only one fighting back. There were police officers doing their best, but their firepower didn't seem to be having much effect. There were also two men, one dressed in dark clothing and wielding a bow and arrow, the other wearing some kind of red, white and blue costume and holding a shield. Those two seemed to be faring better and doing actual damage against their opponents, as was a red-haired woman who was using a gun and had the air of an experienced fighter about her with her quick movements and decisive action. So at least it wasn't a totally one-sided rout, even if these strange non-humans had an obvious advantage in numbers.

Misaka couldn't worry about the other resisters though. She didn't know if she could fully trust them, and she had her hands full just dealing with what was right in front of her. She continued on, firing her railgun at individual targets to subdue them in rapid succession, and simply using her electricity in a more natural form when any of them got too close for her liking. But as the fight continued and the reality of what was happening set in, her mood began to change.

Buildings were on fire, bodies were strewn in the streets, and chaos reigned as terrified people ran for their lives. A little girl was kneeling over her motionless mother and sobbing. A boy who couldn't have been more than eight or nine years old was gunned down right before her eyes.

Mikoto didn't usually unleash the full extent of her powers, even when fighting thugs who legitimately wanted to harm her. Pretty much the only time she fought without holding anything back was when dueling Kamijou, and that was just because she knew he was going to use that strange right hand of his to negate anything she did regardless of the force behind it. That all changed now. It was time to stop holding back.

When she squared up and took aim at the one who had just killed the young boy right in front of her, the railgun she fired didn't simply knock her target off its feet and render it unconscious. The blast sent the killer flying through the air until it landed a good distance away. With the amount of her power she'd just put into that blow, she was pretty confident he would never be bothering anyone ever again. She stayed on the attack, firing her full-powered railgun at opponent after opponent in quick succession while flinging pure electricity at enemies who were grouped close together.

She was startled when a figure flew directly over her head, but he appeared to be human so she allowed the hammer wielder to continue whatever he was doing. That momentary distraction gave one of her foes on the ground a chance to get the jump on her. She found herself in the crosshairs, but before she could even react, some hulking green…thing grabbed the would-be attacker in one massive green hand, picked it up and slammed it against the ground with a resounding smack. Misaka tensed when the great green beast turned its attention towards her. Her electricity was on call, ready to be used at a moment's notice, but Misaka didn't know if it would be effective at all. Frankly, after seeing the ease with which it had demolished the foe who'd been about to shoot her, she'd rather not have to find out. The green monster apparently dismissed her as someone it needed to smash, because it went ambling off in search of new victims. Misaka released a sigh of relief. That was one battle she was glad to avoid.

Misaka had been so focused on the fighting on the ground that she hadn't paid much attention to what was going on above her head. That was very nearly a fatal mistake, as she saw the giant, strange-looking warship heading in her direction just in time to leap out of the way. That had been too close! Narrowing her eyes, she called massive thunderclouds down from the sky, raining a series of lightning strikes on the flying warship. It wasn't going to be flying anywhere any time soon, not after that barrage.

"Wow," a voice breathed from close by, and out of the corner of her eye Mikoto saw one of the same men from earlier, the one in the red white and blue. "How old are you?" he asked.

"Fourteen," she said, not turning to look at him. She'd learned her lesson about losing her focus in the middle of this chaos, and she wasn't about to make that mistake again.

"You're way too young to be out here fighting," he said. "But thanks for the help anyway. Just don't get hurt, and if you get overwhelmed, go find one of the police officers and they'll lead you to the perimeter we're setting up."

Misaka said nothing, jogging away since the man and the small group of police officers flanking him seemed to have this area covered, or at least as well covered as it reasonably could be with everything that was happening. She fired another railgun and dispatched another member of the ground forces, then turned to look for her next target. Instead of a target to attack, her focus went to a young girl who was hiding behind an overturned car. It seemed that none of the attackers had seen her yet, but that was probably more out of luck than anything else. She wasn't safe there.

"Get out of there!" Mikoto shouted. "Run to me!" The girl turned her head to look at her, and Mikoto looked into her frightened blue eyes and did her best to smile as reassuringly as possible. "It's okay, I'll protect you! Just hurry!"

The girl seemed petrified, her body frozen in shock and fear, unwilling or unable to move. This wasn't good; she was a sitting duck out there, with no one to protect her. It was only a matter of time before she would be directly in harm's way. Mikoto decided to cross the distance herself and physically carry the girl away. She'd just made that decision when a loud thud came from directly behind her. She spun around to see one of the attackers on the ground, struggling but being held down by several police officers. That was strange; she'd thought all the police officers in the area were still with the man in the colorful costume. Had he ordered a few of them to break off and cover her back without her noticing?

She shook it off and prepared to go to the girl, only to discover that it wouldn't be necessary. Another policeman came running by, holding the girl in his arms. Again she was surprised; where had he come from, and how had he known she was there? Her question was answered as the officer got closer to her, close enough for him to see his face more clearly. Both of his eyes had star markings on them, immediately making her recall others she'd seen whose eyes looked like that while their minds and bodies were under the control of Shokuhou Misaki. So the Queen of Tokiwadai hadn't stayed away from the conflict entirely. She'd found a good hiding spot and was operating from the shadows, as she preferred to do. Mikoto didn't know whether to be annoyed or grateful that her rival had gotten involved. She knew the arrogant girl would be sure to rub her face in the fact that she'd needed her assistance. But she honestly had helped her save the little girl, so Misaka supposed she couldn't be too upset with her or her Mental Out power.

Mikoto continued to press further on. She didn't have enough knowledge of the situation to know if there was a leader commanding these troops, and where he or she was if so. Hopefully some of the other defenders had a better grasp on that and were working towards it, because she didn't have time to investigate the situation. She just focused on working her way through the ruined streets, helping anyone she found and taking out any enemies she ran into along the way.

She grimaced as she saw a young woman trapped between three attackers and a ruined car that had had its windshield shattered. A quick railgun dispatched the one closest to her, but based on their positioning Mikoto didn't know if she'd be able to take out both of the others with her electricity without hurting the woman in the process. Thinking fast, she used her electromagnetism to pull all four doors off of the car and use them as projectiles to hurl at the enemies.

"Run!" she said to the trembling woman. She whispered a thank you as she ran past Misaka. The teenager from Tokiwadai didn't respond, too busy using a blast of electricity to finish off the enemies as they tried to recover from her stunt with the doors.

Mikoto kept going, kept battling, kept helping anyone she could. Any time she came across the body of someone she was too late t o save, she felt her rage grow. It painfully reminded her of the many 'sisters' she hadn't been able to save from that twisted experiment to turn Academy City's #1 esper, Accelerator, into a Level 6. That had been the darkest point of her life until that courageous idiot Kamijou swooped in. Just when she had been ready to sacrifice herself to try and mess up the results of the experiment and save the remaining clones, that idiot risked his own life and took out the strongest esper in Academy City despite being a mere Level 0 himself. She'd hated feeling that powerless, hated knowing that the death toll of the sister clones continued to rise and she could do nothing to stop it. She'd never wanted to feel like that again, but the bodies she saw amidst the rubble of the street caused those unpleasant feelings to resurface.

She didn't know how to stop it, didn't know who was responsible for all of this, but that didn't mean she was going to just passively let it happen. She would never make that mistake again. All she could do was help whoever she could and hope that someone else actually had a plan on how to stop the attack.

Then, miraculously, it all just stopped. She figured even a decisive action would take time to make itself known, that it would be a more gradual victory, but it was as instant and decisive as it could possibly be. The enemies simply stopped moving all at the same time, as if they were puppets whose strings had been cut. There was a bit of panic when the remaining beastly warships fell out of the sky, crushing anything they happened to land on, but then the dust settled and everyone slowly realized that the threat was no more.

The battle was won, but it hadn't come without a cost. Buildings had gaping holes in them, cars were overturned, and sections of the street were smashed up. And, of course, there were the injuries and the fatalities. Misaka wouldn't soon forget those. She was pretty sure she'd be having nightmares about that young boy who'd been shot right before her eyes.

"Always so quick to rush in," a voice said from behind, and Misaka closed her eyes and clenched her fists. The last thing she needed right now was this annoyance.

"And you were nowhere to be seen, as usual," she retorted.

"Of course not," Misaki said. She walked out from whatever hiding spot she'd found and joined Mikoto's side. "I don't fight on the front lines. And you may mock me if you wish, but I will mock you right back. If you had bothered to use your head and look for a strategic opening instead of rushing in headfirst, perhaps you could have fought more effectively."

"Or maybe more people would've gotten killed because I didn't act fast enough," Mikoto replied hotly. "I'm not like you. I'm not going to hide in the background and let others do my fighting for me."

"I didn't see you complaining when I carried that little girl to safety," the blonde said mildly, not letting Mikoto's suggestion of cowardice anger her. "Or when I had those police officers tackle that opponent that otherwise would have struck you from behind, since you carelessly got distracted."

Mikoto bit her bottom lip angrily but didn't say anything in response. The Queen was getting under her skin, like usual, but she wasn't exactly wrong. While she still found the thought of taking over someone else's mind with the simple press of a button on a remote beyond creepy, she couldn't deny that Misaki's Mental Out had been useful during the fight.

"Any idea where we are?" Mikoto eventually asked, changing the subject.

"No," the other girl admitted. "But this definitely isn't Academy City, and I don't think it's Japan either."

"Yeah," Misaka said quietly. She'd reached the same conclusion. Though it wasn't like she'd had time to stop and chat with anyone, almost everyone she'd seen had appeared to be a Westerner. Wherever they'd ended up, it felt like it was a long way from home.

"There you are!"

Misaka turned her head and saw the man in the colorful blue costume once again. The redheaded woman and the archer were with him again. All three looked like they'd been through quite a fight, but there were no serious injuries that she could see.

"You didn't get hurt, did you, young lady?" he asked, staring at her in concern. Misaka snorted. It had been a long time since someone treated her, the most powerful electromaster in Academy City and the #3 ranked esper overall, like an innocent young girl who needed protecting.

"No," she said. "I've been through worse." It was true. She'd seen things today that would stick with her for a long time, but physically she'd had much rougher days. She hadn't even taken any serious hits.

"Okay then," he said. It was obvious to her that he didn't believe her, but was trying to be polite about it. "I'm glad you're fine. A fight like this was no place for a teenage girl."

"I'm no ordinary teenage girl," she said, smirking at him. "I think you saw that for yourself."

"Guess I did," he said, smiling warmly. "I'm Steve Rogers." He held his hand out to her.

"Mikoto Misaka." She reached out and shook his offered hand. She wasn't sure where that damn magician had sent her or who these obviously 'special' people were, but she found herself inherently trusting this man.

"Uh, Cap? Mind telling us who this girl is?" the redhead said, looking at Misaka with a critical eye.

"I don't know much about her myself," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "All I know is that I saw her take down one of those big Leviathans with a series of concentrated lightning strikes."

"You can shoot lightning?" the woman said, now looking at Misaka with much more interest. "Like Thor? You can't be an Asgardian."

"I'm not sure who Thor is or what an Asgardian is supposed to be, but no," she said, shaking her head.

"Then who are you?" she pressed.

"I told you. I'm Mikoto Misaka."

"So I've heard. But who ARE you? Where are you from?" Mikoto wouldn't say the woman was being actively aggressive, but she wasn't exactly friendly either. It felt almost like this woman was evaluating her, sizing her up like the researchers in Academy City, and it put her on guard again.

"I'm…not from around here," she said. She knew that answer wasn't going to be satisfactory, but she didn't feel comfortable giving any details away. She didn't know who these people were or what they'd say if she told them she was from Academy City. Maybe they'd treat her like an enemy and try to lock her in a cage.

"I gathered that much," the woman said, looking at her with narrowed eyes.

"Natasha, what is this?" the man she now knew as Steve Rogers said, looking at the redhead. "Don't treat this like an interrogation. We're all on the same side here."

"Are we?" the woman he'd referred to as Natasha said, not taking her eyes off of Mikoto. "How can you be sure?"

"Aside from the fact that she just fought against Loki's army?" Rogers said, sounding like he was getting frustrated.

"Just because she wasn't on Loki's side doesn't mean she's on ours. Loki is hardly the only threat on the planet, or in the galaxy. She could be a double agent planted here to gain our trust by making sure she was seen fighting against our enemies."

"Double agent?!" Rogers shouted, now truly getting worked up. "She's a kid!"

"So was I, when the KGB recruited me." The woman had never looked away from Mikoto, and the teen was watching her closely in turn. She fingered one of the tokens in her pocket, ready to fire off her railgun if this turned physical. She didn't know what this woman had in mind, but Misaka was ready and willing to fight her if necessary.

"I think you're a little paranoid, Nat," the other man said, speaking up for the first time. "Has she given you any reason not to trust her?"

"You mean other than refusing to tell us where she's from?" When neither man answered, Natasha continued. "Think about it. If she's really capable of doing what you said she did, Rogers, then why hasn't Fury ever heard of her? Why hasn't he mentioned her?"

"Not even Fury can see everything," the other man said. "He might've missed her."

"Or he might know all about her and just hasn't told you," Rogers added. "Don't tell me you think he doesn't keep secrets from you."

"Maybe he knows about her, maybe he doesn't," Natasha said. "Either way, I think he'd love to meet her."

"Is that a threat?" Misaka said, now taking the token in her hand, pulling it out of her pocket and holding it at her side in a clenched fist. "You going to try and take me away against my will?"

"No one's taking you anywhere you don't want to go," Rogers said, holding his arm out in between Mikoto and Natasha. "Do you have parents, or a family you could call? They're probably worried about you."

"I'm not sure that I can reach them right now," Misaka said truthfully. She had to figure out where she was before she could try and get in touch with anyone. "But either way, I'm not leaving here with you."

"That's fine," Steve said. "It's obvious to me that you can take care of yourself, so if you don't want our help I'm not going to try and force it on you. You're free to go whenever you want."

"Finally!" Shokuhou said, appearing at Misaka's side once again. It was only at that moment that Misaka realized the other girl had faded into the background as the other three had approached. She'd taken herself out of the equation until she was confident they weren't a threat. What a coward, she thought to herself.

"Oh? You have a friend with you?" Steve said, raising his eyebrows. "I didn't see you during the fighting, miss."

"You wouldn't have," Misaki said with a smile. "Unlike my impulsive 'friend', I generally try not to thrust myself straight into the middle of dangerous situations."

"Of course you don't," Misaka muttered under her breath.

"And what tricks can you play?" Natasha asked. "You make lightning rain down from the sky like your friend?"

"I just watched you interrogate poor little Misaka after she ran in and risked her life to help you fight those things," Misaki said. "I see no reason to tell you anything about me or what I can do. For all you know, I might be just an ordinary middle school student." She winked and giggled.

"Somehow I doubt that," Steve said. "But I understand your caution."

"Thank you for your understanding, Mr. Rogers, sir," she said in a cutesy schoolgirl voice that grated on Misaka. "Now if you will excuse us, Mikoto and I really must be going." She turned and walked in the opposite direction, and after a moment's pause Misaka fell into step beside her. She didn't like the self-centered blonde. They were rivals at Tokiwadai, but that wasn't really why Misaka didn't like her. Their personalities were polar opposites, and the girl annoyed her to no end any time she had to interact with her. If she'd had the choice she would've preferred to be stuck here with just about anyone else from Tokiwadai, even though Misaki easily trumped them all in power level. But the simple fact of the matter was that it wasn't Kuroko, Saten, Uiharu or anyone else who had been sucked into that strange magic hole with her. It was the Queen who had wound up here with her, and as much as she might not like her, she was the only familiar face in a strange situation. Hopefully they'd find their way home soon, but until then it only made sense for the two of them to stick together. They just needed to make it back to Academy City before they bit each others' heads off.

"Hold it."

It wasn't Natasha who ordered them to stop, like Mikoto would have expected. It was the man whose name she didn't know, the one with the bow, who had generally been quiet throughout the conversation and hadn't seemed all that suspicious of them when he did speak up. Confused, Mikoto turned around to see what he wanted.

He hadn't seemed suspicious of them before, but either he'd been doing a great job at faking or something in the last thirty seconds had caused him to drastically change his opinion of them. That bow was now in his hands, with an arrow nocked and pointed straight at Misaki Mikoto still had her arcade token in her hand, and she very nearly fired it at the archer the moment she saw him taking aim at her schoolmate. She might very well have done so if Steve hadn't rushed forward, physically placing himself between the bowman and his intended target.

"Barton! What're you doing?!" he shouted, raising his shield near his face. "What happened to you saying Natasha was being overly paranoid?"

"I thought she was, with the first girl," he said, not lowering his bow. "But the blonde put me on edge right away, and I think I know why."

"Oh?" Shokuhou said. Her voice didn't contain any hint of girlish teasing now. She was deadly serious. "Please tell me what I've done that justifies you aiming an arrow at my heart."

"A few minutes ago I heard a policeman saying he must've blacked out, because he couldn't remember anything he'd done for the past ten minutes. You remember that, Captain?"

"I do," Rogers said. "I assumed it was just the stress of battle getting to him. In life or death situations like that, sometimes your body just operates on autopilot and you act without really thinking."

"Yeah, I thought the same thing at the time," Barton agreed. "But remember what his friend said?"

"He said that he caught a glimpse of his face as he ran past him, and he could have sworn his eyes had…stars on them," Natasha said slowly, her voice trailing off as her mind made the same connection Barton had reached earlier.

"So what're you saying, Barton?" Rogers asked. "You think the other girl, what, possessed them somehow?"

"Why not?" the archer said. "We know it's possible. I'm living proof of that, aren't I?"

"That was Loki," Steve reminded him. Misaka remembered them using that name earlier when talking about the end of the battle. So this Loki, whoever he was, must have done some kind of brainwashing or tampering on Barton, and now he correctly suspected Shokuhou had done the same to someone else and was naturally very hostile to them both as a result. Perfect.

"Nice job, Mental Out," Mikoto whispered, quietly enough that only the Queen could hear her.

"You're too trusting, Rogers," Natasha said. She'd pulled out her gun and was pointing it at Mikoto. "You're trying so hard to believe that these girls aren't dangerous that you're willfully ignoring what's right in front of your face. How many people have you ever met that have stars on their eyes? There's no way that's a coincidence."

Misaka could see that Rogers' efforts to defuse the situation were less than successful. His two companions weren't listening to him, and she felt it was only a matter of time before it turned violent. She wasn't about to be defensive and wait for them to make the first move, not this time. She had been through a frustrating day. It started with chasing the mysterious magician and winding up here, wherever here actually was. And just to rub salt in the wound, her one companion, the one person she actually knew, was that annoying Queen of Tokiwadai.

They'd been sent from their chase and dumped straight into the middle of a heated battle. Mikoto's adrenaline was still pumping from that battle. She'd jumped straight into the fray to help anyone who needed it, despite not knowing where she was or who any of these people were. And now, her reward for her bravery was this redheaded bitch pointing a gun at her head. Was this how Kamijou felt every time he threw himself right into the middle of a thankless, hopeless situation? If so, she could understand why he was constantly complaining about his misfortune.

Add it all together and Misaka, never known for her patience even under the best of circumstances, had had enough. Determined not to let Natasha strike first, she prepared to zap her with an electric strike. Not a lethal one; just enough to subdue her. It would've been perfectly justified as far as she was concerned. The adult woman had started it by pulling her gun out. The teenage electromaster had every right to defend herself.

"You two need to leave," Steve said, his back to the teens as he stood in place between them and his two allies. "This situation is only going to get worse."

"We can't just let them leave, Rogers," Natasha objected. "Maybe they aren't hostile, I don't know. But their powers definitely pose a threat, even you can't deny that. After what we just went through, how can you think letting them walk is the right call? Do you think the people we just saved would be okay knowing that we let two unknown girls, one who can apparently shoot lightning and one who can probably brainwash people, out into the streets of New York without any clue about who they are or why they're here?"

"Yes," Rogers said without hesitation. "Because when we were under attack, this young lady put herself in danger to help out, to fight Loki's army and protect the innocent. That's what a hero is supposed to do, and I'm not about to be suspicious of someone who would make that choice."

"What about the other one?" Barton said. "Is taking control of people's minds something heroes are supposed to do too? Because if so, maybe we should let Loki out of his chains and make him an Avenger too!"

Steve hesitated this time, and Mikoto couldn't blame him. She was uneasy about the power of Mental Out too. Any time she saw someone under Misaki's control, their body moving and acting according to her whims, she was thankful that her electromagnetic barrier meant she was immune to the Queen's power.

"I'm not sure what to make of her," Steve finally admitted. "And I understand your concern, Barton, especially after what you just went through. But I trust Ms. Misaka, so if the two of them are together than I don't have any choice but to give her the benefit of the doubt for now. The only other alternative is a fight, and I think we've all had enough fighting for one day."

Natasha didn't look happy about it, but she slowly lowered her gun. "I still think you're being naive, but I can see I'm not going to get through to you. If Fury is pissed when I tell him that we let these two go, it's on your head."

"I have no problem with that," Steve said. Mikoto couldn't see Barton's face with Steve's body blocking the way, but she imagined he wasn't any more happy about this than Natasha. Regardless, he put his bow away, and stormed off in the opposite direction almost immediately.

Now that weapons were no longer being pointed at them, the two Tokiwadai students began to walk away themselves. They had no specific destination in mind, of course, but their little standoff at the end had at least given them a bit of information.

"New York," Misaki muttered from beside her. "I've always wanted to visit, but this wasn't exactly what I'd had in mind."

"Shut up," Mikoto said, rolling her eyes. "This isn't a vacation. We have to get home to Academy City as soon as possible." Mikoto had no way of knowing it at the time, but getting home would prove to be far more difficult than she could have ever imagined.

They were indeed in New York City, and flights to Japan were readily available. But there was one very large problem.

Academy City did not exist.

 

[Mayor Haggar]

"They call THIS a library?" Misaki looked around, horribly unimpressed. "How very pedestrian."

"Shut up!" Mikoto hissed. The librarian frowned at them from behind her glasses, not approving of how loud the two teens were being upon entering her library. "Can you show some manners for five minutes so we can do what we came here to do?"

"You, of all people, are going to lecture me on manners?" Misaki said, her voice quieter but no less haughty for it. "That may be the most ridiculous thing that's happened to me all day. And considering a magician sent us through a portal that dropped us on the other side of the world, and right into the middle of a battle no less, that's really saying something!"

"Just shut up!" Mikoto whispered harshly. "Let's just get this over with so we can set up our flight home."

Once the adrenaline of the battle had worn off, they'd turned their attention to finding their way home. Misaka's nerves had lessened somewhat when she'd learned they were in New York, because at least it was somewhere she'd heard of. That meant it shouldn't be too hard to get home; all they needed to do was reach someone from Academy City. For some strange reason neither of their phones were working at all, so their most obvious method of establishing contact was out. Neither of them had any money on them, so Mikoto had suggested they come here.

She walked towards one of the computers available for free public use and began her search. Since Academy City was its own sovereign nation located within Japan, they should have their own consulate somewhere in the city. They just needed to find the address, introduce themselves and arrange for a flight back home. With any luck they might make it back in time to stop that weird magician before he or she could carry out their plan, unless Kamijou had already been dragged into the fray and taken them down with his right hand.

Mikoto frowned at the computer screen when her search returned no helpful results. That was strange. She found the contact information for the Japanese consulate easily enough, but she was afraid that wouldn't do her any good. Academy City didn't answer to Japan.

"What's the matter?" Misaki asked, growing impatient as she stood next to her. "After all that talk about getting in and out as quickly as possible, don't tell me you're struggling with such a simple task?"

"There's nothing," Mikoto said, frustrated. "No way to contact anyone from Academy City."

"Don't be ridiculous," the blonde girl snapped. "You're just not looking hard enough."

Mikoto ignored her. Maybe instead of searching for the consulate specifically, she should widen her search. She backed up and simply did a search for 'Academy City.' None of the results were helpful. The top match was for some school in the US called City Academy, but there was nothing for her home.

"What the hell?" she muttered. Now she was starting to get angry. She used more force than necessary on the keys as she brought up a picture of a current map of Japan. The map looked mostly accurate, but there was no sign of Academy City.

"Misaka," the other girl said, and she wasn't teasing now. It seemed she could sense the frustration and mounting fear from Mikoto, and was realizing there might actually be a serious problem.

Mikoto turned to her, and the blonde took a hasty step back as she saw the sparks shooting off of the Railgun.

"What is it?" Misaki asked, looking at her quite seriously. "What's wrong?"

"It's not there," she mumbled. "Nothing, not a single result. It's like Academy City...doesn't exist."

"I thought I told you not to say ridiculous things," the other girl said, looking at her as if she'd lost her mind. Frankly, Misaka couldn't blame her. She felt like she was starting to lose it.

"Do you think I don't know how ridiculous it sounds?" Mikoto asked. "But no matter what I type, I can't find a single thing about Academy City. It's like it was just wiped off the map, like it was never formed in the first place."

"You need to calm yourself before you lose control of your power," Misaki said. "Relax. You know Academy City is real. So do I."

"Right," Misaka said, taking a deep breath. It was strange, being comforted by her rival, but Shokuhou was not only a familiar face in a sea of strangers. At this moment she was the only link Mikoto had to Academy City, to her home, and she felt the need to cling to that tiny sliver of normality.

"Good," Shokuhou said. "Now work through this logically. If you can't find references to Academy City directly, try looking up things that you know happened, things that were all over the news, things that Academy City was tied to in one way or another."

That wasn't exactly going to help them get home, but at least it would give her some reassurance. It was as good a place as any to start. Starting to feel better already, Misaka cleared her previous search and entered the first thing that popped into her mind, which happened to be World War III. Even with whatever bizarre quirk was causing her to come up empty on Academy City, there was no way this search could fail. The global war between Academy City and Russia/the Roman Catholic Church/God's Right Seat was too big a story to just disappear.

There were plenty of results for World War III, but none of them covered the actual war itself. Every mention of World War III she could find treated it as a hypothetical event that could happen in the future, and speculated on the countries that might potentially form sides if such a war did break out.

"Impossible," Misaka said, rubbing her eyes. Why were they acting like World War III was a possibility? It had already happened!

In a panic, Misaka started searching for other major events in recent history. There was no mention of any of the events in Tokyo or Hawaii, either. No matter what Misaka tried, everything she searched for turned up nothing. Then it occurred to her that instead of looking up things that she knew to have happened back home, she should search for things connected to her current environment. Maybe that would give her some clue as to what the hell was going on.

The obvious place to start was the huge battle they'd just fought in. Sure enough, there was tons of coverage on the event. She didn't linger long on the pictures and videos of the carnage. She'd seen quite enough of that up close and in person. Of more interest to her were the stories covering a group called The Avengers, who had been credited with defeating the invading army and preventing the casualties from being any worse than they were. She recognized several of them, including the large green monster that had tossed enemies around so easily and the hammer-wielder who flew above her head. And of course there were Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff, who hadn't exactly endeared themselves to Misaka with their confrontational attitude. But the one who caught her attention more than any of the others was Steve Rogers. Apparently he went by the nickname Captain America. That explained the red, white and blue. She was just about to do a search for more information on him specifically when the other girl spoke up.

"Misaka." It was just one word, but something in Shokuhou's tone made Mikoto look away from the computer. She'd never heard the stuck-up Queen of Tokiwadai sound so serious.

"Huh? What is it?" she asked. "I was finally learning something, so this had better be good."

"Look at the date," the blonde said, pointing at the computer screen. "In the bottom right corner."

"You interrupted me for that?" Mikoto said, scoffing. "I already know the date, so why should I even waste…my…time…"

She trailed off in mid-sentence as she did as the blonde asked and glanced down at the time and date displayed on the computer monitor. It took a moment for reality to set in, but when it did she could understand why Shokuhou sounded so serious.

May 4th​, 2012.

"2012?" she said out loud, sure her eyes were deceiving her. She hadn't even been born in 2012!

"That was over twenty years ago! There has to be some kind of mistake with the computer," she said desperately, even as her head was telling her that the computer wasn't wrong. This made all too much sense when combined with all the other strange things going on.

When she'd first learned that they were in New York City, it seemed like it would be a simple enough thing to return home. But this trip to the library had crushed those hopes. That magician's portal had done far more than merely drop them on the other side of the world.

--

"What're we supposed to do?" Misaka moaned, slumping against the park bench and hanging her head in defeat.

"Sitting here moping about it isn't going to help anything," Shokuhou said from beside her. She took a healthy bite out of a stick of meat a vendor on the street had handed her. Of course, the only reason he'd been so willing to give it to her free of charge was because she'd been controlling his mind at the time.

"I'm glad you're taking this so well," the Railgun said, glaring at her. The effect was somewhat ruined when her stomach loudly grumbled, which drew a giggle from Shokuhou.

"I'm not any happier about this than you are," the other girl said. "I'm just smart enough to realize that I need to remain calm and not let panic cloud my judgment. I shall keep a level head and approach this situation rationally, just as I did during the battle."

"By refusing to run in and fight to protect people who were in danger, you mean?"

"I did plenty to protect people during that battle," she said, not reacting to Misaka's anger. "I just did so subtly, while you had to be flashy as always. That's why we attracted such hostility from those two fools at the end. Not that they were any threat to us and our powers of course, with their silly guns and bows, but the entire situation could have been avoided if not for your impetuousness."

"ME?!" Misaka shouted, drawing a curious look from a tall man wearing a shirt with 'New York Giants' written across the chest as he walked past their bench. "You're the one who got caught using your disgusting power! They would have never drawn their weapons on us if you hadn't!"

"And they would never have approached us in the first place if you hadn't charged out into the open and used your power in plain view," Shokuhou countered. Misaka glared at her, but she couldn't come up with a good counterargument. It was true that Steve had only checked on her because he'd run into her earlier in the battle. "Oh, and let's not forget that I gave them absolutely no information about myself, while you were foolish enough to give them your full name! "

"Not like that even matters," Misaka argued. "We're over twenty years in the past, and as far as they're concerned Academy City hasn't even been created. Knowing my name isn't going to help them learn anything more about me."

"But you didn't know that at the time, did you?" Shokuhou pointed out. When Mikoto said nothing, unable to deny that truth, the blonde smirked triumphantly and finished her stick of meat. Misaka couldn't help licking her lips, feeling her stomach rumble. She hadn't eaten anything since early in the morning, and she'd worked up quite an appetite after chasing a magician, getting teleported into the middle of a battle, fighting to protect and save innocent people, and finally learning that the magician had sent her not just across the world, but evidently across time as well. Sadly, she had no money on her with which to satisfy her hunger.

"I could see how hungry you looked while you were watching me eat, you know. I can easily procure something for you as well, as long as you ask me nicely."

"Never!" She might be starving and broke, but she still had her morals. She would never stoop to relying on Mental Out to feed herself.

"Suit yourself," the Queen said. She tossed the stick into a nearby garbage can. "Don't come crying to me if your hunger keeps you up through the night."

"Trust me, I won't," Misaka said. The blonde's comment did bring another issue to mind though. "Speaking of night, what are we going to do? We need to find someplace to sleep, at least for tonight."

"Oh, that?" Shokuhou said, entirely unconcerned. "I've already figured that out, so put that worry out of your silly little head." She arched her back against the bench and stretched her arms above her head, which drew attention to her large breasts. Misaka looked away, folding her arms across her chest and frowning. Part of her was still convinced Misaki wasn't truly middle school aged.

"That so?" Mikoto said, still refusing to look at her unlikely companion. "I'd love to hear how you're going to pull that off. We don't know anyone here, we don't have a dorm to go back to, and we don't have any money."

"Money?" The other girl chuckled. "How quaint. Follow me."

Misaka frowned but rose from the park bench and fell into step behind the other girl as she began to walk away. Sad as it was, Shokuhou was the only person she could really turn to right now. Besides, it wasn't like she had any better ideas on what to do.

They walked a short distance, stopping in front of a large, beautiful luxury hotel that was located just across the street. Mikoto took one look at the place Shokuhou had chosen and scoffed.

"Really?" she said. "You think we're going to be able to stay here, of all places? Did you not hear what I said about us not having money?"

"Oh, I heard it," the blonde said airily. "I just chose to ignore it. Did you listen to me, Misaka, when I called your concerns quaint?" Mikoto frowned at the jibe but followed along as the blonde walked through the front entrance.

"Even the lobby looks nice," Misaka said, looking around at the expensive-looking décor and polished floors. Everything looked so immaculate. This would be pricy even if they had their money from Academy City on them. That settled it; there was no way this was going to work. At least she'd be able to be entertained by watching them throw Shokuhou out on her pompous ass. That'd be of some small comfort on this crazy paradigm shift of a day.

Misaki confidently walked up to the front desk, which was being attended to by a middle-aged woman. The lobby was otherwise empty, so no one else would be around to see Shokuhou make a fool of herself. That was okay though; Mikoto would see it, and that was enough for her.

"Hello, miss. Can I help you?" the clerk asked, smiling.

"Yes, I believe you can," Shokuhou said. She reached into the bag slung over her shoulder, and out came a remote.

"No, wait," Misaka said, alarmed, but one simple press of the button had the clerk completely under the Queen's command. She would now do anything that Shokuhou wanted her to do. Even if Misaki decided the woman should walk out of the hotel lobby and straight into oncoming traffic, she would do it without even a second of hesitation. Admittedly she'd never seen Shokuhou use her power to make anyone do something that extreme, but the mere fact that she could if she so chose bothered Mikoto to no end.

"We'll be taking the best available room you have," Misaki said. "Two beds, please."

"No way!" Mikoto said, shaking her head even as the clerk handed over two keys. "I'm not using your disgusting power!"

"And what other option do you have?" Misaki asked, brushing her golden hair back and smiling. "As you've pointed out, you have no money. You can either sleep here, in a big, comfortable bed, or on that park bench we spent most of our evening on." Mikoto glowered but said nothing, and Shokuhou sighed and shook her head. "Think of it this way. We need to stick together, at least for now. Plus, I've already used my power to reserve the room. The room is mine for the night, the woman will remember nothing other than giving us a room that we paid for, and no one will get hurt. The only difference you'll make is leaving the second bed empty while you leave to go find some other place to stay, with no money available to you and in a city full of strangers. Be defiant if you like. At least I'll be able to get a good night's sleep without you around to make a nuisance of yourself."

Mikoto glared at the ground, refusing to meet the other girl's eyes even as she reached out and snatched the second key from her. She didn't like it, but Shokuhou was right. She didn't have any other options. She would just have to do her best to set her guilt aside, get a solid night of sleep in what was sure to be a soft, comfortable bed, and then tomorrow they'd get to work on deciding what to do next.

Unless she woke up in the morning to find this had all been a bad dream, it looked like they were going to be stuck here for awhile. Maybe even forever, though Misaka refused to seriously consider that thought. They would find a way home, a way back to their own time and place. They just had to.

How they were going to do that, she had no idea. But that was a problem to save for tomorrow.

--

"All in all, it was a good result," Nick Fury declared. "The Chitauri were neutralized, Loki is in our custody and will be returning home with Thor to face Asgardian judgment, and the Tesseract will leave with them. There were civilian casualties, of course, but I count this as a win."

Steve Rogers had to nod in agreement. Civilian deaths would always hurt, but all one had to do was think of how much worse it would have been if he and the rest of the Avengers hadn't succeeded in stopping Loki. They'd even had to deal with the World Security Council attempting to hit New York with a nuclear missile to stop Loki's invasion. Stark had nearly lost his life taking care of that particular complication, and he was now recovering in the hospital.

Tony wasn't present, but the rest of the Avengers had joined Fury aboard the helicarrier for a post-battle report. Even Banner and Thor, who didn't have any obligation to obey military custom, had turned up. Steve looked around at his fellow Avengers and saw a sense of satisfaction on their faces similar to what he felt himself. It had been quite a battle, but they'd prevailed. He felt it was a job well done.

After spending some time discussing the aftermath of the battle and what would happen next, Barton brought up a different topic.

"Sir, I'd like to discuss a pair of suspicious girls we met after the battle," Clint said seriously. Steve immediately sat up straighter in his chair, knowing what was coming next. Clint and Natasha had not been happy with him at all for standing between them and the two teenagers, and things had been tense between them ever since. He'd been expecting this to come up.

"I've already heard," Fury said. "Romanoff submitted her report immediately." Steve wondered what he thought of the girls, and if he approved of the actions of Romanoff and Barton. He certainly couldn't read his voice at all. "But I'd like to hear what you two think about the way you handled the situation."

"I admit that we were too heavy-handed," Romanoff began, surprising Steve. She hadn't been very apologetic or remorseful immediately after the fact, but maybe having some time to reflect had changed her outlook. "I should have been more subtle about trying to get information from them, and less openly antagonistic. I think the adrenaline of the battle with Loki prevented me from using my best judgment, but that's no excuse. It won't happen again."

"I see," the Director of SHIELD said. "And what do you think of the girls themselves?"

"They're very suspicious," she said, looking directly at Fury and refusing to acknowledge the look Steve was giving her. "How did two girls we've never heard of before, girls with that kind of power, just happen to be on the scene in time to join in the fight? They were either there for a reason or it was a major coincidence. And I'm not a big believer in coincidences."

"So you think we should treat the girls as a potential threat, Romanoff?" Fury asked. When she nodded, he turned to Clint. "And what about you, Barton? Do you think you two took the right course of action in confronting them after the battle?"

"I do, sir," Clint said, with a firm nod. "I get what Nat's saying, and maybe we could have handled the situation better, but I'm not convinced we made the right call in just letting them walk away. Maybe the Captain is right, and the girls aren't any threat to us. But can we really afford to take that chance, especially right now? You know everybody's on edge after what just happened."

"I do know that," Fury agreed. Steve bristled and prepared to defend his own actions, but what the Director said next surprised him. "That still doesn't explain why you thought that it could possibly be a good idea to draw your weapons on those two unless you were left with no other choice," Fury said. Steve had no trouble understanding his mood now. He was very displeased with the choice his two agents had made.

"Teenagers or not, don't you think powers like those pose a huge threat?" Clint said, standing his ground. "I wasn't about to treat them with kid gloves. I'm sorry, but when I hear that someone took over someone else's mind, I think drawing my bow is more than appropriate."

"That isn't what I meant, Barton," Fury said, shaking his head. "We have one girl who, according to Captain Rogers, seems to have power along the lines of Thor. He apparently saw her casually destroy one of those giant flying Leviathans. Is that correct, Captain Rogers?"

"It is, sir," he confirmed, nodding. "She might only be fourteen, but based on what I've seen, that girl has incredible power."

"Did you think your gun was going to act as a deterrent to such a person, Agent?" Fury asked, looking at Natasha. "Would you expect a gun to stop Thor?" Natasha said nothing, looking down and biting her lip. She'd already acknowledged that she should have handled the situation differently from the beginning, and now her boss was giving her more food for thought. Since she was lost in silent thought, Fury again looked to Clint.

"And you, Agent Barton. You were under Loki's control. You know that power better than any of us. When you suspected the second girl of possessing a similar power, your first act was to aim an arrow at her? You don't even know how quickly the girl can activate her power, or how easily she can control someone. What if her immediate response had been to take control of Natasha and have her turn her gun on you?"

Barton glared but couldn't offer any reply to that. Steve sympathized with the man. It was perfectly understandable why he'd react so strongly to the thought of mind control after what he'd been through, but Steve agreed with Fury. Their actions had been rash and ill-conceived.

"Is the girl truly that powerful? The first girl, I mean?" Thor asked, intrigued. Steve nodded. "And she's a teenager, you said?"

"She told me she's fourteen," Steve confirmed. Thor stroked his chin and nodded, absorbing this new information.

"Fascinating," he said, mostly to himself. "I should very much like to meet her some day and see her strength for myself."

"You should both be thankful to the Captain for acting as a voice of reason," Fury continued, returning to his criticism of Clint and Natasha's choice. "Without him there, I question whether either of you two would be here to have this little chat." Steve nodded, pleased that Fury was seeing things his way. He didn't always agree with the man or his methods, but at least they were in agreement on this.

"So what do we do going forward?" Natasha asked. "I know we screwed up, but I don't think Rogers is correct either. We can't just let them roam around New York unchecked, especially since everybody's still reeling from Loki's attack."

"Unchecked?" Fury repeated. "No. They're far too powerful to completely ignore. We'll monitor them, and try to gather any information we can on who they are, where they came from and why they're here. But unless we're given a damn good reason to treat them as a threat, we're not going to interfere with them. They have great power, and as best we can tell they used that power solely in our defense during the battle. If they're not our enemies, I sure as hell don't want to turn them into enemies. We have enough to deal with."

"So you don't have any information on them?" Bruce asked skeptically. "With your information network and your resources, two girls that powerful went completely under your radar? I find that very hard to believe."

"So do I," Fury said, showing no outward offense to Bruce's cynicism. "Yet they did. They were complete unknowns to me before Romanoff's report. And none of my initial inquiries into 'Mikoto Misaka' have turned up anything. Unless she was shrewd enough to give Captain Rogers a fake name, it's like the girl doesn't officially exist."

"I don't think it was a fake name," Steve said. "She seemed to trust me well enough, at least until Barton and Romanoff became hostile."

"I'm inclined to agree, but we can't rule it out. If they're here to attack us from within, giving you a fake name could make sense," Fury said. "She could be hoping to gain your trust and eventually use that trust to lead you into a trap."

"Don't tell me you're going to start with that spy nonsense too," Steve said, shaking his head.

"I'm not saying they are," Fury said, holding up his hand. "But I won't discount the possibility either. We don't know who they are or where they came from. We won't treat them as enemies unless given a reason to, but it would be foolish to blindly trust them. Either way, we need to learn more about them."

"But you have no real leads?" Natasha asked. Fury shook his head. "Do you have any theories?"

"Theories? Yeah, I have plenty of those, but nothing to back any of them up."

"Whether her name is fake or not, she's definitely an Asian," Clint said. "If she's from Japan, do you think she might be associated with HYDRA?"

"HYDRA?" Steve said immediately, feeling his blood run cold. "What do you mean?" He'd been sure that his old foes were long gone by now.

"HYDRA?" Bruce asked. "What's that?" So he hadn't heard of them, at least.

"A hydra? Truly?" Thor asked, leaning forward in his chair and grinning, looking very excited. "I didn't think such beasts could be found here on Earth! Where is it? I will gladly slay it for you!"

"Not that kind of hydra, Thor," Fury said. "And not the same branch you dealt with either, Captain. The HYDRA you're thinking of was simply the German branch of the group. They were the most notorious and well-known branch, but they're no longer a concern. Other branches of HYDRA still exist, and as Agent Barton suggested, one of the ones that continues on is in Japan. They're run by a man named Gensei Kihara."

"If HYDRA has stuck around in any form for all these years, why hasn't SHIELD dealt with them long before now?" Steve asked heatedly.

"Because they're outside of our mandate," Fury said, remaining perfectly calm. "They've remained in Japan, and unless they either make a move against the U.S. or do something that presents a global threat, it's up to Japan to deal with them." Steve leaned back in his chair, not at all satisfied by that answer. Ignoring a known evil just wasn't something he could accept. He'd seen what HYDRA represented, and the thought of SHIELD letting even a minor branch of it linger infuriated him.

"What about the two girls?" Clint asked, returning to his original question. "Could there be a connection?"

"I suppose it's possible," Fury conceded. "But it doesn't seem likely. Too many pieces don't fit together. For one, it doesn't fit their usual pattern of behavior. And even if this was them breaking from their preferred way of doing things, how would they know to send the two girls here in time for the battle? I don't see how they could have done that unless they were working together with Loki, and there's nothing to suggest any connection there. I get your reasoning, Barton, and I won't rule it out. But I don't think that's the answer."

"Okay, that was my theory," Clint said. "You said you had some theories of your own."

"I do. But as I said, I have nothing to back any of them up."

"You might as well share them anyway," Steve said. "Speculation's all we really have to go on right now, and I'd like to know where your head's at." This was one topic he didn't want to be kept out of the loop on. He knew those girls didn't have evil intentions, he could feel it in his heart. Well, he felt that way about Mikoto at least, and if the other girl was with her, that was good enough for him. If Fury or SHIELD had any thoughts about these girls, he wanted to know.

"As the entire world now knows, we are not alone in the galaxy," Fury said.

"Surely you don't think she's from Asgard?" Thor said, frowning. "If she were, I would know of her."

"No, not Asgard." Fury shook his head. "But Asgard isn't all that's out there. It's a big galaxy, and we aren't alone."

"You aren't seriously telling me you think they're aliens?" Steve said, beginning to question Fury's sanity.

"Like I said, it's just a theory. I could be way off-base. But if they're from Earth, I find it very hard to believe that they could have escaped our notice all this time."

"And they sure as hell weren't eager to tell us where they were from, or any other information about themselves," Clint offered.

"I doubt I'd be interested in answering any questions from people who pointed weapons at me, either," Steve replied. That drew a less than pleased looks from Barton and a grimace from Romanoff, but he wasn't about to back down. "I'll admit I'm curious about who they are and where they're from. But I understand their reluctance to share that information with us. You continue to investigate their background if you want. But if you make a move against them, either of them, without a very good reason, I WILL step in to defend them."

"Even if it puts you against SHIELD, Rogers?" Natasha asked, looking at him seriously. "Against the Avengers?"

"Even then," he said, nodding with conviction.

"You can't judge a book by its cover, Captain," she said. "Don't think they're innocent kids you need to protect just because they're teenagers. They aren't automatically good just because they're young. I know I sure as hell wasn't at their age. If you'd tried to protect me when I was fourteen, you would have wound up with a knife in your back."

"It isn't about that," he said. When he saw the doubting look on her face, he shook his head. "It really isn't," he insisted. "When that girl saw the absolute worst happening, when she saw a city under attack and innocent people's lives in danger, she put herself right in the line of fire. She saw people who needed saving, and she did her best to save them. You can ask whatever questions you want about who they are, where they came from and why they're here, but I refuse to believe that they're here as part of some evil plan. Those are the actions of a hero, and that's exactly how I'm going to treat Mikoto Misaka."

"I agree," Thor said. "Anyone willing to join in the fight against Loki and his army is someone I wish to call a friend. If I have the chance, I'd very much like to speak with the girl. Perhaps even train with her, so I can see her power for myself."

Steve looked at Thor and nodded, glad that at least one of the other Avengers seemed open to trusting the young girl. Bruce said nothing, and Steve couldn't get a read on him as far as what he was thinking or which way he was leaning. He already knew where Clint and Natasha stood. As for Fury, Steve didn't know what to make of him. There was nothing new there.

"There's no need for us to choose sides here," Fury said. "As I said, we aren't going to be taking any action against this Mikoto Misaka or her friend unless they leave us with no other alternative. For now, we'll simply stay out of their way and try to learn more about them. Who knows, maybe we'll even offer them a place in the Avengers eventually. Powers like those could really help us."

"Assuming we can trust them," Clint said.

"Right," Fury agreed. "Assuming we can trust them."

Steve had heard enough of this conversation. One minute they were discussing whether or not the two girls might be spies, HYDRA sympathizers or even aliens from another planet, and the next they were talking about recruiting them. He was of the mind that unless they asked for help, the two girls should just be left alone.

He could acknowledge that the other girl's power was troubling, especially if she'd used it to control innocent people like that police officer. But they didn't know the context behind that. The people who had seen the cop in question said he hadn't done anything bad or all that dangerous during the battle, and had actually run by while carrying a little girl to safety. In the only example they had of the girl seemingly using her power, she'd done so for a very good cause. He still wasn't comfortable with the idea of taking control of someone's mind and body without their consent, but that didn't automatically make the girl evil. As far as they knew, she hadn't forced anyone to do horrible things against their will, like Loki did to Clint and others.

But more than anything else, he was willing to give the girl a chance because she was with Mikoto. He felt he knew a hero when he saw one, and her actions during Loki's attempted invasion more than qualified. He didn't intend to seek her out unless he felt she needed to be informed of something, but if Mikoto Misaka ever needed his help, Steve Rogers would offer it without hesitation.

 

[Mayor Haggar]

"I wonder if anyone back home has figured out what happened to us yet. Maybe they're working on a way to bring us back."

Misaki Shokuhou could only shrug helplessly, not that Mikoto had been expecting any other response. Despite all the considerable power they had between the two of them, this was a problem that had no easy solution, or any apparent solution at all. How does one return to a place that doesn't exist, that has never existed as far as anyone in the world knows? The two of them were stuck here, and that didn't appear to be changing any time soon unless someone from Academy City had a plan, or at least more of an idea about what had happened than the two girls currently possessed.

"At least we blend in more now," Misaki said, smoothing out the casual skirt she'd changed into. Mikoto did her best to ignore the stab of guilt as she was reminded of what Shokuhou had done, and more importantly that she herself had gone along with it. They stood out too much in the Tokiwadai uniforms they'd been wearing when they got sucked through the magician's strange portal, so acquiring new casual clothes was a necessity. Unfortunately their lack of money reared its ugly head once again, and so when Shokuhou had proposed using her Mental Out to get them clothes and take care of other bare necessities, Mikoto hadn't been able to disagree. However reluctant she was to admit it, they couldn't afford to ignore any advantage they had in this unfamiliar new world they'd been thrust into. They had no friends or allies, no one they could trust or rely on. All they had were potential enemies.

Misaka had a feeling they were going to run into someone from the Avengers again sooner or later. Based on what she'd learned of them thus far, they didn't seem like the sort of group that would simply forget about them or leave them alone. Whether they would be friend or foe, Mikoto had no idea. What she did know was she wasn't going to be caught unprepared. If the Avengers made a move against them or became a threat, she and Shokuhou needed to be ready.

The Avengers weren't all they had to worry about though. There was also this Loki and the army he'd led in an invasion of New York. He'd been defeated, but did he have other allies that might try to pick up where he left off? She didn't know. The Avengers and the government agencies backing them might have a better idea, but she certainly couldn't go to them for intel. Accessing their systems and pulling out any relevant information would have been a more viable option, but their servers were air gapped for security reasons. She would need to be at the server itself, or at the very least on a terminal that was connected to their server. She would surely be able to hack their other security measures instantly using her electric powers, but physically getting to a suitable terminal was a risk she wasn't about to take unless she felt she was left with no other choice.

There was also the magician to consider. Had he or she come to Academy City from here? Had she and Misaki wound up here purely by chance, or were they dumped here on purpose? And if so, why?

"Trying to find a lead on that magician is the key to finding a way home," Misaki said, echoing Mikoto's own thoughts.

"Yeah," she agreed. "I don't have the first idea where to look though. And even if I did, we need to be prepared. They caught us by surprise last time, and that's how we wound up in this mess. If we track them down somehow, we need to be ready for whatever they might throw at us."

Misaka was still kicking herself for being bested by the magician the first time. If she had only been more prepared, maybe she could've taken him or her down and avoided this whole mess she was now wrapped up in. And now that she was here and all of her possessions had been left behind in Academy City, she was at an even greater disadvantage. Not having the Anti-Art Attachment with her was a particularly tough blow. That powered suit had been designed specifically for use against magic and the magicians who wield it. What if the magician was back here now and they ran into him or her again? What if they encountered other magicians here, or other strange beings invaded? The chitauri, as Misaka now knew they were called, weren't too large a threat to her, all things considered, but there was no guarantee that she and Shokuhou wouldn't run into someone or something stronger. Mikoto was strong and there was no denying the utility of Shokuhou's Mental Out, but she still felt weaker and less comfortable than she'd feel if she had the A.A.A. with her.

Plus there were the Avengers to consider. She knew Hawkeye and Black Widow wouldn't have been difficult to defeat if push had come to shove, but she didn't know enough about the others or their capabilities to be sure that they all would go down so easily. All told, there were too many variables, too many potential threats to consider, and that made the loss of the A.A.A. all the more unfortunate. Even more unfortunate was the reality that it would be impossible to recreate under her current circumstances. She had gone back in time more than twenty years, and even in the time she'd come from, the technology in Academy City had been decades ahead of the rest of the world. The best, most advanced technology she could get her hands on here would still not even be close to the caliber that she needed to create something that even resembled the A.A.A.

But what about technology that was not of this world? She'd fought the chitauri herself. She'd seen their strange weapons up close, but she hadn't had time to really stop and analyze them closely with everything that was going on. Maybe the defeated chitauri had left behind weapons that could give her something to work with, or at least provide a starting point beyond anything else she might be able to get her hands on.

It was for this reason that Misaka was heading towards the very site of the fierce battle she'd fought in only one day earlier. The rest of New York was trying to pick up the pieces and recover from the attack. They probably wanted to do their best to move on and put that horrible day behind them, but the two girls from Academy City saw an opportunity. Well, Misaka did at least. Her unlikely companion was less sold on Mikoto's plan.

"I still say this is a waste of time," she said, and not for the first time. "If anything of value is there, the government already has their hands on it. I could still poke my way in and "encourage" them to give it to us, but…"

"No," Mikoto said right away. "It's too big a risk. We don't want to draw that kind of attention on ourselves." She was getting over her reluctance to utilize Shokuhou's Mental Out, but even if she successfully controlled the right people and got Mikoto access to what she wanted, the odds of someone else finding out about it was too great.

"I agree," the other girl said. "So why exactly are we wasting our time coming back here? There won't be anything to see."

"We won't know that until we have a look." The chitauri had some interesting tech with them. It didn't appear to be as advanced as the tech from Academy City, but from what she'd seen it did at least outshine what passed for cutting-edge in this world. She was hoping to get her hands on some and analyze it. With any luck, she might be able to combine the chitauri equipment with her own knowledge to create at least a passable replacement for the A.A.A.

"What's going on down there?" Misaki asked. Mikoto cocked her head.

"I don't know," she said, "but we need a closer look."

Some kind of crew had set up camp amongst the wreckage, taking shovels and trucks and all manner of vehicles in what was obviously a salvage job. They weren't wearing any kind of military or police uniform, which was interesting. Had the government really allowed a group of civilians to explore the ruins of a battle fought against alien invaders, with unknown technology and weapons? If so, perhaps they could reach some kind of agreement.

"Coming down here might have been worth it after all," Shokuhou mused. "If the government hasn't sunk its claws in just yet, our search just became far more promising."

Unfortunately, it seemed they were just a bit too late. Even as they arrived on the scene, they could see an elderly woman leading a group of men in suits in to disrupt the workers. She couldn't hear what was being said from this distance, but it was obvious it wasn't a friendly discussion. If she and Misaki got any closer, they'd be spotted for sure.

"Let's stop here and see what happens," she said. "We don't know who they're associated with, but.." Misaki cut her off with a giggle.

"Don't be silly, Misaka," she said. She reached into her handbag and pulled out one of her remotes. "This is where I come in."

"Don't get caught," she hissed. "There are too many people around. We should let this play out naturally."

"Don't worry," the blonde said, waving off her concern. "I'm just going to take over one person. One of the unimportant ones lurking in the background. We need information, and I'm going to get it." Mikoto huffed, but it wasn't like she had a better idea. She just kept her eyes on the argument from afar and waited for her companion to fill in the blanks.

"One of the workers is saying he has a contract with the city to salvage everything, but the older woman says everything is under her jurisdiction now and they're taking over the cleanup," Misaki relayed. That meant the woman was from some governmental agency or another. Damn, and they'd been so close!

"She just told this man, Toomes, to turn over any 'exotic materials' they've found unless they want to be prosecuted." It happened in a flash, and from the angle she doubted the woman or any of the suits with her noticed, but Misaka caught the man named Toomes slip something into the pocket of his shirt. So he had a bit of a rebellious streak in him, apparently. That could help them. Even access to scraps could really help Misaka's plans.

"He's pleading with her, saying he spent a lot of money on this job and could lose his house." Misaka didn't need any interpretation of the woman's answer. The way she dismissively turned her back on him and walked away spoke volumes.

Suddenly, Toomes punched one of the men in suits right in the face!

"Why'd he do that?" Misaka whispered.

"The man was taunting him," was the answer she got. Mikoto could sympathize, especially if losing this job really did have the potential of putting him out on the streets, but it was obviously not a wise move. Several of the men in suits drew their guns in response to the punch, and an unarmed salvage crew could do nothing in the face of that threat.

"The woman's ordering them to put their weapons away," Misaki said. "And she said he can take any grievance to her superiors."

"You get a name?" Mikoto wanted to know. That could be important information.

"The Department of Damage Control," Misaki said after a moment. "She says it's a joint venture between the federal government and Stark Industries."

"Stark, huh?" She knew the name; it had come up frequently during the research she'd done. Stark Industries was run by Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. He was one Avenger they hadn't spoken to during or after the battle, but she knew who he was all the same. He and his company seemed to be at the forefront of technological advancement in this world, especially when it came to weapon development. Between what she knew about Stark Industries and Tony's association with the Avengers, two of whom had been openly hostile towards her, the stakes had just been raised in Misaka's mind. She didn't know how big of a threat Stark, his company or the Avengers might pose against her currently; she didn't have enough firsthand knowledge of their capability to accurately judge their strength. But whatever strength and knowledge they might currently possess, there was a great chance it was going to increase if they got their hands on and were able to study the chitauri tech.

If they wanted to survive long enough to figure out how to make it back home, she and Misaki needed to protect themselves against whatever threats may come. If that included Iron Man, Stark Industries and the Avengers, it was even more important for them to get their hands on that tech.

"You said his name was Toomes?" Mikoto asked as they started to walk away now that the dust was beginning to settle. Misaki nodded. "Let's give him some time to cool off. I doubt he's going to be in a mood to listen to us right now, not after what just happened to him. But eventually we should track him down and see if we can strike a deal."

"Why? Isn't this Department of Damage Control going to confiscate everything of value?"

"Everything they know about, sure," Mikoto said, thinking about the thing she'd seen Toomes stick into his pocket. "But this was a big battle, with lots of wreckage and debris, and Toomes was here before them. If this is really as important to his livelihood as he claimed it is, who says he's going to turn over everything, even stuff he might have already hauled away?"

--

"Hi, Mr. Toomes. Can we talk?"

Misaka smiled pleasantly as Adrian Toomes spun around at the sound of her voice, and she casually walked right into the little workshop he and his men had set up for themselves as if she had been invited in. She hadn't, of course. Neither had Shokuhou, but the blonde was walking along at her side as if she owned the place. That was fairly standard behavior for the Queen of Tokiwadai, though Mikoto had been surprised the blonde had decided to join her. Usually Misaki liked to operate in the shadows, but she wanted to be on hand here. Mikoto wondered if being forced outside of her comfort zone/base of Tokiwadai Middle School had Shokuhou wanting to be close on hand to examine things for herself, but she didn't pry.

"Who are you?" Toomes asked suspiciously. He looked around at his men. "Did one of you bring these girls here?"

"Never seen 'em before in my life," said a heavyset man standing behind a table that was absolutely covered with what looked to be junk. But when Mikoto looked closer she could see various metallic objects that looked interesting. He must be a tinkerer of some kind, she decided, someone Toomes tasked with examining the salvage and figuring out what if anything could be done with it.

No one else spoke up to say they knew the girls either, because of course they didn't. After determining that they were strangers, Toomes turned back to the girls and gave them a tight-lipped smile.

"Sorry, girls. I don't know how you wound up here or why you know who I am, but we're very busy here," he said. He kept his tone pleasant, but Misaka could tell he was nervous and anxious for them to leave. That meant he had something to hide. She'd expected as much, and it was a very good sign for their purposes. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"You'd kick us out before you even listen to what we have to say?" Shokuhou said in mock surprise. "That's just very ill-mannered. I expected better from you, Mr. Toomes. What if your daughter takes after you, and grows up into a rude young lady with no friends?"

"Don't talk about my daughter," he said. The anxious smile was gone, replaced by a glare. He'd gone from nervous to angry thanks to Misaki's little personal jab. Normally Mikoto would scold the blonde for antagonizing him, but they'd talked this through beforehand. If they were right and he was hoarding any of the chitauri weapons and tech illegally, he wasn't about to make a deal or be friendly with a couple of teenage girls. If they wanted to make this work, a little demonstration of their powers was probably going to be in order. They needed to show him they were far from ordinary, and if things had to get tense in order for that to happen, so be it.

"I apologize for my friend," Mikoto said, smiling at him. "We just wanted to talk business and see if we might be able to reach some kind of agreement."

"Agreement?" he said, now looking at her suspiciously. "Why would a couple of teenage girls want to reach an agreement with me? Who the hell are you, and what do you want?"

'We just happened to be in Grand Central Station the day after the Battle of New York," Mikoto began conversationally. She was watching Toomes closely, but even an amateur would be able to spot the way his body stiffened and his face went cold. "We saw that woman from the government kick you out and take over your salvage job. It's a shame. Tony Stark really screwed you over, huh?"

"And what of it?" he asked, staring at Mikoto. She could see the frustration and the anger boiling through him and begging to be released. "Are you both Stark's bastard daughters or something? Did he knock up a couple of Japanese women on a business trip? That would make sense; everybody knows how big a manwhore he is. You come here to rub your daddy's money in my face, is that it?"

"How repulsive!" Misaki said, pretending to wretch. "I don't know Tony Stark personally, but based on what I've read about him I can assure you that my mother has MUCH higher standards."

"We've never met Tony Stark," Misaka added. "But we have met a couple of his friends from the Avengers. They didn't exactly make a great impression."

"Then what is it?" Toomes asked. He didn't look angry now, just confused. "Why are you here? If you're looking to hire us for a salvage job, sorry, but we're not interested. Like I said, we're very busy."

"Oh, I'm sure you are," Shokuhou said. "That's exactly why we're here."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he wanted to know. Mikoto smiled and cracked her knuckles. It was time to get to the point, and she knew he probably wasn't going to react well.

"I happened to see you slip a little something into your pocket when that old lady wasn't looking," she said. His eyes widened, and she saw the way he clenched his fists. "We were wondering if you might have held onto even more goodies the chitauri left behind." He took a step towards her before stopping, but it was obvious he wasn't in the negotiating mood just yet.. She wondered if he would try to physically remove them himself. If so, it was going to go very badly for him. She wouldn't do anything that would seriously hurt him, but she was prepared to show him that he and his men posed nothing even resembling a threat to her.

"Get them out of here," he said to one of his men, the biggest and strongest of the group as far as Misaka could tell. Not that it mattered; they could combine the strength of every man in that workshop, they could all rush her at once, and she could neutralize them all as easily as she would swat a fly. If anything, the fly might pose a greater challenge. It was a much smaller target, after all.

The burly man emerged from the group and began to slowly advance on Mikoto and Shokuhou. "Not sure how I feel about roughing up a couple of little girls, but you've stuck your noses where they don't belong."

"Last chance, girls," Toomes said, taking a few more steps back. "I'm not exactly thrilled with the idea of violence against teenage girls, but you're right. We didn't let Stark and the government get their hands on everything. If they find out, we're finished. If you back away now, forget about us and don't mention a word to anyone, that'll be the end of it. But we've come too far to go back now, so if you won't leave us alone, we'll make you."

He was probably expecting them to tremble in fear, or at least look a little nervous. But the two girls not only stood their ground, they smiled at him and made sure he knew how relaxed they felt. This group was no threat whatsoever to a pair of Level 5s from Academy City, and it was time to demonstrate that point to Toomes and his men.

"Do you want to take care of this, or should I?" Misaki asked, stretching her arms above her head without a care in the world, which also had the annoying effect of making her large breasts stick out prominently inside the casual shirt she was wearing.

"I'll handle it," Mikoto said. "No offense, but I think my power is a little more flashy. Really grabs attention right away, you know?"

"I beg to differ," the other girl sniffed. "Regardless, I'll allow you to show off, Railgun. Just don't hurt him too badly, remember."

"I know," she said. "I'm not stupid. Making a deal's gonna be that much harder if I put this guy in the hospital."

Thanks to the Battle of New York she was currently out of arcade tokens, her preferred tool for her signature Railgun attack. That was something she'd need to take care of before she got into another serious fight, but even if she'd had tokens on her she wouldn't be pulling them out here. She just wanted to put this guy in his place and show off a little bit of her power. Her Railgun would send this poor brute to the morgue in pieces.

Misaka used only a very small fraction of her power this time, yet despite holding back considerably, her show of power was extremely effective. A tiny little blast from her electricity knocked the enforcer on his back, after which she grinned at Toomes.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine in a few minutes," she assured him. "I took it easy on him."

Toomes, saying nothing, ducked behind a table in a panic. Most of his colleagues took a similar path of self-preservation, but not all chose to hide. A few of them bravely, or more accurately foolishly rushed forward, moving with much greater urgency after they'd seen how easily Mikoto dispatched of their colleague. They never got close enough to offer any sort of threat, not that they'd have been truly threatening anyway. To a man, they stopped in their tracks and turned right back around to stare at Toomes as he continued to use the table to shield as much of his body as he could. It was like the men were performing a synchronized routine, or they were artificial beings all moving in response to a command from their creator hitting a button.

They were indeed flesh and blood human beings, but the rest of that comparison was apt. They were moving in perfect synchronization, and they were doing so because Misaki Shokuhou pulled a remote out of her handbag and had hit a button.

"Don't be like that," one of the men said. He was speaking with his voice, but the words were Misaki's. "We're not here to destroy you, Mr. Toomes. We just want to work together."

Toomes slowly stood up, abandoning the table he'd used as cover. He was probably realizing that the table would have been less than useless as protection if they'd really wanted to get him.

"Who the hell are you?" he whispered, slowly walking through the crowd of his own men who all stood with their hands clasped at their sides. They parted to let him through. "Where did you come from?"

"Trust me, you've never heard of it," Misaka said. "What matters is that just like you, we got on the bad side of the Avengers and the government agencies backing them. You took some stuff away from that battle site, stuff that we can use to prepare to defend ourselves in case the Avengers or anybody else decides that we're too dangerous to let live."

"We COULD simply take it all away from you," one of Toomes' men said, star markings on his eyes. "But my dear friend here is a big old softy, and she doesn't want you to lose your house or be unable to provide for your family and take care of your daughter."

"So, Mr. Toomes. Are you willing to talk now?" Misaka asked.

--

Something didn't add up.

That was the impression Thaddeus Ross was left with as he pored over the account of the Battle of New York that SHIELD had proved him with.

The business with Loki and his army was easy enough to understand. It was his belief that letting Thor take that bastard back to Asgard was a big mistake. Whether Fury felt the heir to the Asgardian throne was trustworthy or not, Loki was still his brother. What if he felt sorry for him? Even if he didn't free Loki outright, simply letting his guard down could be a mistake that came back to haunt everyone. But that wasn't his call to make. Whatever Ross might think of it, Loki was already back in Asgard and now out of their reach.

That wasn't what had him feeling uneasy though. He kept rereading the portion of the report that described the incident between Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow and two teenage girls. How could a pair of fourteen year old girls get agents the caliber of Barton and Romanoff riled up? After everything those two had experienced in their careers, what could make them lose their cool like that? Who were these kids, and where did they come from? Of all the issues stemming from Loki's invasion of New York, this was the one that bothered Ross. It was the only one with no clear answer that he could see, and he didn't like not having answers. If these kids were capable of shaking Barton and Romanoff, they had the potential to be very bad news for everybody.

"Ah, Lieutenant General. Just the man I was hoping to see."

"Yes, Mr. Secretary?" Ross said gruffly, staring at his desk to hide his scowl as Alexander Pierce poked his head in his doorway. They'd never gotten along. Pierce was far too diplomatic for his liking.

"Have you made any headway on these Mandarin bombings?" Pierce asked. "It sure would be nice to put a stop to that, you know, give people some peace of mind. Especially after what just happened in New York."

"Of course it would," he said flatly. "When I have something, I'll let you know."

"So you're no closer to solving it, I take it?"

"That would be correct," Ross was forced to admit. "We don't know who this Mandarin is. We're looking into it, but so far we don't have a damn thing."

"That's disappointing," Pierce said mildly. "Ah, but I'm sure you and your boys will come through soon." Ross wanted to yell at him, wanted to tell him to take his words of 'encouragement' and shove them up his ass. He absolutely detested being patronized. But all he did was give the Secretary of the World Security Council a slight nod.

"Is there anything else I can do for you?" he asked, hoping the man would leave him alone. Unfortunately, Pierce still had more.

"Actually there is," he said. "Have you had a chance to study the report Romanoff filed with SHIELD?"

"The report on the battle? Of course I did," Ross said. What kind of idiot wouldn't have made reading that document a priority when it came into their possession?

"Excellent! I'd love to hear your thoughts," Pierce said. "Anything stick out at you?"

"Most of it was stuff I'd already heard," the Lieutenant General said dismissively. "I think we all had a pretty good idea of what went down already."

"True," the Secretary agreed. "But what about the two girls they ran into after the battle was over? I don't know about you, but I found that very interesting." Ross turned his chair so he could look at Pierce more closely. Now the man had his attention.

"So did I," he said. He might not like Pierce personally, but tolerating his presence would be worth it if the man could offer any new information about that little issue.

"Two teenage girls, girls we've never even heard of, pop up out of nowhere and get into a confrontation with Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff? It doesn't add up. If they're powerful enough to make two agents of that caliber react with such open hostility, how did they manage to evade our notice until now?"

"I was asking myself the same question. And if you're not sure either, I'm guessing I'm not about to get any answers."

"I wish I had answers to give you, Lieutenant General, but if you've read that report then you're just as well-informed as I am. That's all the information Director Fury has given me on them."

"You think Fury might be hiding something?" Ross asked. Director Fury had been quite the obstructionist when he'd gotten the World Security Council's permission to access SHIELD'S systems in an effort to track and capture Bruce Banner, so Ross was no fan of the man.

"I trust Nick Fury with my life," Pierce said, making Ross want to vomit. "He disobeyed direct orders in order to save lives in Bogota, and my daughter's life was among them. I never forgot that, and when I was promoted to Secretary years later I made him the Director of SHIELD."

"I get it, you're loyal to him," Ross said, rolling his eyes. But to his surprise, Pierce wasn't done discussing Fury or how he related to those two girls.

"It's a decision I've never regretted," the Secretary went on, "yet how can I say for sure that he isn't following those same principles here? He disobeyed a direct order from his superior in Bogota because he believed it was the right call to make. What if he's doing the same here? What if he knows more about these girls than he's letting on, but he's made the decision to conceal that information from everyone else? I don't want to believe it, but I can't rule out the possibility."

"Why are you telling me this?" Ross asked. "Why not just order Fury to tell you everything he knows?"

"Because I know Nick Fury, and I know that wouldn't work," Pierce explained. "If he is hiding something, he's not going to budge no matter how hard I press. That's why I was hoping you might look into the girls yourself."

"I can do that," he said, nodding. He had already been planning on finding out what he could, but getting Pierce's support on it might make that an easier task. "But there might be some red tape along the way."

"Don't worry about that. If anyone tries to restrict you on this, you just give me a call."

--

"How's the heli-carrier treating you, big guy?"

"Fine, Tony," Bruce Banner said as Tony Stark took a seat across from him. "I mean, I'm bored out of my skull. But Ross can't even think about trying to capture me again as long as I'm here and under SHIELD's protection, so I guess I can't complain too much." Fury assured him that nothing would happen to him even if he did walk the streets freely, but the Director of SHIELD wasn't the most powerful person in the country. And considering some of those powerful people tried to blow them all up instead of trusting The Avengers to handle Loki and his army, Bruce was in no mood to take his chances at the moment.

"Well, chin up, buddy," Tony Stark said. "The renovations are almost complete. Pretty soon you'll have your own room at Avengers Tower. You and the green guy will love it there." Tony was using his money (well, some of his money) to make some changes at Stark Tower, and it went deeper than a simple name change. Some renovations were being made, and as soon as they were done Bruce would be saying goodbye to the heli-carrier.

"Can't wait," Bruce said. Surprisingly, he meant it. He liked Tony well enough, and anything had to be better than hanging around here on the heli-carrier all the time. Well, anything other than being hunted by the US military at least.

"Look on the bright side," Tony said. "You could be in the captain's shoes."

"Yeah," Bruce said. "I've seen some of that." Steve had been sent on a series of human relations appearances; meeting with survivors of the battle, visiting schools to give kids inspirational speeches, filming patriotic messages to be aired on television, et cetera. That was far outside of Bruce's comfort zone, but Steve did plenty of that back during World War II and was actually quite good at it. More power to him, Bruce supposed, but he wouldn't want that gig even if he wasn't being forced to lay low.

"Are Barton and Romanoff around?" Tony asked. "I'm in the mood to grab some more shawarma."

"Nope. Fury sent them out to Japan a few days ago," Bruce said. He'd missed them more than he had expected, but that was mainly because it left him as the only Avenger hanging around the heli-carrier. With them in Japan, Thor back in Asgard, Rogers doing PR and Tony being Tony, the Avengers had gone their separate ways as suddenly as they'd come together.

"Investigating those kids they ran into after the battle, I'm guessing?" Tony had been in the hospital recovering from his brush with death when that discussion had gone down, but he'd soon heard all about it from both sides. He hadn't shared his opinion with anyone, so Bruce wasn't sure how he felt about it. Frankly, Bruce didn't even know how he felt about it himself. He hadn't been there when the argument broke out, and he didn't know anything about them other than what he'd been told secondhand. But it would be highly hypocritical of him to immediately not trust someone just because they possessed a power he didn't understand. He'd resolved to wait and see what they did before making any sort of judgment on them, and it seemed that Tony might be doing the same.

"You got it. They're looking into the Japanese HYDRA to see if there's any connection. Didn't sound like he was expecting much out of it, but he's making sure all his bases are covered." Bruce had been surprised that the Director had been so upfront about what was going on, but supposed it had something to do with the differing opinions on what to do about those two girls.

"If he learns anything, I'm sure we'll be the last to know," Tony quipped. Bruce just shrugged. He certainly understood not trusting Fury, but he felt the man had been truthful so far about his knowledge, or lack thereof, about these girls. "Is SHIELD still keeping an eye on them like a good intrusive big brother?"

"Only to an extent," Fury said, walking into the room from behind them. "Right now we're mainly focused on making sure they're still in New York, which they are. If they leave the area, we want to know about it. But if they stay put and behave themselves, there's no reason to interfere."

"And what if they pick up where Loki left off?" Tony said.

"You're lucky Steve wasn't around to hear you say that," Bruce muttered.

"Hey, I'm not saying I want to lock them up with nothing to go on like our pal Barton," Tony said, holding up his hands. "All I'm saying is that they sound like a pretty damn big threat, if they choose to be one."

"And if they choose to be one, we'll take whatever action is necessary," Fury stated. "But unless that happens, I don't want to do anything as extreme as tracking every single movement they make throughout the day. They might not react well if we make them feel like they're constantly being watched."

"Thought you guys were constantly watching everybody," Tony said. Fury just stared at him and said nothing.

The moment was interrupted by a news story on the TV, recapping the latest of the so-called 'Mandarin bombings.' Stark shook his head in disgust.

"Another lesson for the American people," Tony said, reciting the propaganda that accompanied each bombing. "How soon until you track this asshole down so we can teach him a lesson of our own?"

"We're working on it," Fury said, watching the story on the TV and not looking at either of them. "So is everyone else. Whoever this is, whoever's behind it, they're covering their tracks well. But they'll slip up eventually, and when they do, we'll take care of them."

--

"I think that's as good as it's going to get with what I've got right now," Mikoto said out loud.

She'd done her best to create something close to the power and functionality of the A.A.A., but there was only so far she could go with the chitauri tech Toomes had provided. Even if the chitauri weapons were beyond state of the art in this world, they still weren't on the same level as what Academy City was capable of. Still, she felt she'd done well enough with what she'd been given. The powered suit she'd put together wasn't something that would be truly threatening against the likes of a Level 5 esper, but it would still be something they could use in their defense if need be. It would also give them some options as to how to move around, since it could take many forms. The motorcycle form would be useful for conventional travel, and there were even some hidden guns built into that form that would give them some firepower while on the move. The suit could transform into something resembling the A.A.A. as well, though it didn't have anywhere near the variety of weapons built into it.

"I'm back," Shokuhou called out, opening the door to the modest apartment they were currently staying in. She carried in some groceries and put them down on the table. "I bought everything myself, like a boring person."

"Like a normal person," Mikoto corrected her absently. "You don't need to mind control people to handle your everyday chores, we have money to spend thanks to Toomes, and we now have valid IDs." The IDs had been simple enough for Misaka, who used her electric powers to hack into the government's database and create records for herself and Shokuhou.

"Yes, yes, save the lecture," Misaki said, rolling her eyes. "I'm still surprised you got over Toomes' shady dealings so easily. Working together with someone who sells all these illegally obtained weapons on the black market? It's so unlike you."

"He has a valid reason!" Mikoto said defensively. "Stark and the government screwed him out of the contract, and he has a family to feed! Besides, if a weapons dealer like Stark is working together with the government to hoard alien technology, we need to be prepared. We needed that technology, and working with Toomes was the way to get it."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself," Misaki said with a grin. "I just hope you don't come to regret it later."

"I'm sure you do," Mikoto said, but there was no real heat in it. They still bickered, but the two girls had grown more used to each other in the month they'd been here and their arguments were more benign than they'd generally been back at Tokiwadai. They didn't really have much choice in the matter. They were in this together.

Back in Academy City they'd put their differences aside when necessary out of a mutual desire to help Kamijou, who was such a noble idiot that he'd found ways to rush in and save the day for both of them separately. They didn't have Kamijou as a common factor to unite them here, but now they needed to coexist and work together simply to survive. She still doubted they would ever truly be friends, but they'd at least settled into something of a truce until they found their way back home.

They would find their way back, Misaka was sure of it. She refused to give up hope on that. Maybe someone in Academy City was well on their way to bringing them back, but if not, they'd find a way to do it themselves. And now that she'd gotten the powered suit operational, they had plenty of options on where they could go to hunt for information and pursue any leads they might find.

If an answer to their dilemma existed in this world, they were going to find it no matter where it was.

 

[Mayor Haggar]

"Misaka, why are you so careful with the money Toomes gives us? It's not like we need it."

"We might eventually," Mikoto said, not looking up from the magazine she was reading. Shokuhou did have a point; expenses weren't a big deal when Misaki could simply use her power to get whatever she wanted free of charge. Mikoto had gotten over her reluctance to make the most of Misaki's powers. The way she rationalized it, at least to herself, was that they might very well need every dollar, every resource they could get their hands on in order to get back home. They couldn't afford not to utilize everything they had at their disposal, and that included Shokuhou's Mental Out.

"What are we even going to use it for?" Shokuhou asked. "What do we need that I can't just get with the press of a button?"

"Hmm," Misaka hummed, thinking about the question. It was all well and good to stash the money from Toomes in case of a future emergency, but was there anything they might need in the more immediate future, something that would actually be less hassle to pay for rather than having Misaki do her thing? "Maybe we should look for a new apartment."

"A new apartment? Aren't you the one who picked this one out?" Misaki pointed out. "Not that I'm complaining, mind you. This place is much too small for my taste. But why do you want to move now?"

"I've been thinking about this for like a month, actually," she said. "We could use a place a little more isolated. Off the beaten path, you know?" She looked up from her magazine and saw that Misaki was looking around their current apartment, likely finding it wanting. "Someplace that we could remodel and use to fit our needs without attracting any unwanted attention."

"And why couldn't I just use my ability to get that for us?" the blonde asked.

"If we're going to be staying there long term, there's too great a chance of something going wrong," she answered. "I don't trust the Avengers not to stick their noses in our business."

"Based on what we know of them, I don't consider them much of a threat," Shokuhou said dismissively.

"Maybe not," Mikoto said with a shrug, "but they're still a complication we don't need."

"If you say so," Shokuhou said, unconvinced. "Personally I think luring them to us wouldn't be the worst idea. Maybe they have information we can use."

Mikoto shook her head right away. She was about to explain why she thought that was such a bad idea, but at that moment there was a knock on their apartment door. They both turned towards the sound, surprised. They'd largely kept to themselves and avoided any contact with the other tenants in the apartment building, so they very rarely had any visitors.

"Were you expecting company?" she muttered, looking at Shokuhou, who just shook her head. Mikoto silently padded towards the door, and she was on high alert. The odds of this being someone who meant them harm were low, and even if they did, the odds of them actually being a threat were nearly nonexistent. That didn't mean she was going to take anything for granted. On the off-chance that this was someone who did in fact have bad intentions, she was going to be ready.

She pulled the door open, ready to fire off a burst of electricity if necessary, but there was no weapon pointed in her face and no attack was forthcoming. She didn't recognize the African American man outside her door, but based on his relaxed posture and the calm expression on his face, it certainly didn't feel like he viewed her as an enemy.

"Can I help you?" she asked neutrally. She wasn't going to let her guard down just yet. He might not appear to be an enemy, but appearances could be deceiving.

"Hello, Mikoto Misaka," he said, nodding his head at her respectfully.

"Do I know you?" she asked suspiciously. So he did know who she was, at least. That probably ruled out this being a coincidental visit from a neighbor or someone looking to make a sale. But who was he, and why was he here? Could he be associated with the Avengers in some way?

"Not yet," he said, his voice friendly. "But I'm hoping we can change that, if you'd be amenable. My name is Daniel Drumm, and I'd like to have a friendly discussion about who I represent, why we've taken an interest in you, and what your current goals are."

--

New York Sanctum
Three Months Earlier

The battle with Loki and the Chitauri raged on, but it was not The Ancient One's place to confront the Asgardian trickster directly. That was a battle to be left to The Avengers. Her purpose was solely to guard the Sanctum. Any Chitauri troops that ventured her way were being swiftly dispatched, but that was going to be the extent of her involvement in this battle.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, something very peculiar occurred, something that caught her attention. Being the Sorcerer Supreme and the leader of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, an interdimensional portal opening and dropping two girls off in the middle of New York was always going to catch her interest. Such a thing would be a top priority that commanded her immediate attention on almost any other day in her many centuries of life, but she could not afford to leave the Sanctum undefended with the Chitauri attacking the city. As if to prove her point, several more Chitauri arrived, forcing her to turn her attention away from the two girls.

Their arrival was not something she had foreseen, and it begged further investigation. It would have to wait until after the battle ended and the Sanctum was secure once more, but she would definitely be looking into these dimension hoppers soon.

--

Hours later

Locating the two girls had not been hard for The Ancient One, and neither was disguising her presence. As they performed their fruitless search at the library, it became evident to her that these girls had not entered the portal of their own volition. They were lost, trapped in a place that was not theirs and unsure of how to get home. So they hadn't come here on their own, and when they'd found themselves in the middle of a battle they'd fought against Loki and the Chitauri. It was doubly reassuring that they did not carry the sort of corruption that came from dealing with Dormammu, which was always a grave concern when it came to the matter of interdimensional activity. Put together, these facts seemed to confirm that they were not a threat to be concerned with.

That didn't mean she could ignore them entirely, of course. Even if they weren't an immediate threat, anyone who came through an interdimensional portal had to be observed, whether they'd come through willingly or not. She was aware of their confrontation with some of the Avengers in the aftermath of the battle, and assumed that SHIELD would be doing their own sort of observation of the girls. That was fine, but anything of this nature crossed over into her realm, the realm of the mystical.

She considered making herself known and conversing with them about who they were and how they'd wound up here, but decided it wouldn't be prudent at this time. Instead she would simply have them observed for now, and wait and see if reaching out to them would be wise at a later date.

She would entrust Drumm, the Master of the New York Sanctum, with keeping an eye on them and letting her know if anything of relevance was uncovered.

--

Drumm didn't monitor the dimension hoppers directly. Instead he relied on his subordinates to use their magic to spy on them discretely and pass on the occasional notice about what they were up to.

Notice #5
June 16th, 2012

Mikoto shot up in her bed with a scream, feeling her heart race as the awful nightmare lingered in her brain. It wasn't exactly a nightmare though. It was her brain recalling things that had actually happened, which made it all the more traumatic for her.

She'd known ten thousand of her clones had been murdered. Of course she'd known it; she'd felt overwhelming guilt for helping facilitate that entire experiment, even if she'd done so unwittingly. Being manipulated and lied to by the Academy City researchers hadn't lessened her feelings of responsibility any, which was why she'd been ready to die, to throw her own life away to shut down the experiment and save the remaining sisters. Then that idiot Kamijou stepped in, somehow solved all her problems for her, and the situation had seemingly been settled.

So she'd thought, but then she'd had 10,000 memories of dying shoved into her head during Daihesai. She'd known they'd died, known Accelerator had killed them, and had felt awful and powerless, but knowing that they happened and actually having the memories inside of her head were two very different things. Now she could recall every single one of those ten thousand deaths with horrifying clarity, as accurately as if she'd lived through them all in the first place. She did her best not to think about it in her waking moments, but she had no control over what her brain dwelled on when she slept.

"The sisters again?"

She looked up to see Shokuhou standing in the doorway of her bedroom, dressed in her usual silky pajamas. Her normal teasing attitude was shelved for the moment, and she looked at Mikoto sympathetically. Misaka just closed her eyes and nodded. Without another word, the blonde padded across the room and sat down beside her on the bed.

Not so long ago Mikoto would've rebelled against the show of pity, especially from this girl that she'd so often argued with, but couldn't bring herself to do so now. They'd been stranded here together for a month and a half now, which had forced them to become more civil towards each other. More than that though, she just needed the comfort.

They said nothing else, but nothing further needed to be said. Misaki didn't try to cheer her up or place a comforting hand on her back; she just sat there beside her in silence. It was a simple gesture, but she appreciated it. The other girl's company would keep her nightmares at bay, at least for a little bit.

Notice #7
June 24th, 2012

"This partnership has been going better than I'd hoped," Toomes said, grinning at Misaka. "Here's your cut for this week." Mikoto pulled the money out of the envelope he'd handed her, and her eyes widened.

"This much?" she said. He chuckled and nodded.
"All about the clientele," he said. "If it weren't for you and your friend, I'd probably just be selling stuff to small-time thugs looking to rob a bank. But with how good these weapons are, its government agencies we're dealing with here. They pay the big bucks! My daughter's never going to want for anything, that's for sure."

"Don't these government agencies ever ask questions about how you get your hands on such sophisticated technology?" she asked, frowning.

"And risk missing out on these weapons?" the man known as the Tinkerer said. "They're not stupid enough to do that. Take the African dictators we just sold a shipment to. They know somebody will pay for them, so it might as well be them instead of one of their rivals, right?"

Mikoto stamped down her unease at the situation. It was a shady business, she knew that. But she also knew that Tony Stark and his company did the same sort of thing. Why should she adhere to some kind of ethical code if the man who funded the Avengers, the so-called heroes of Earth, funded them with money he and his family made by profiting off of war?

She might not like it, but she needed every asset she could have if she wanted to figure out a way to get home. The money she made off of this arrangement was helpful, but the advanced technology she was able to access was the real prize for her. If she ever did run up against a foe that was a legitimate threat, she needed to be ready.

Notice #8
July 4th, 2012

The sound of fireworks could be heard from outside, even over the TV she'd flipped on to try and drown it out. Misaka didn't really understand why the Americans chose to mark the anniversary of their independence by blowing things up, but the colorful explosions held no appeal for her. She could make things go boom any time she wanted to, and she didn't need to waste any money to do so.

Her roommate was in the shower, so Mikoto was taking this chance to read the manga she'd bought the other day. Misaka read them for the story (really, she did!), but she knew Shokuhou would tease her if she saw some of the steamier artwork that nearly pushed the manga into hentai territory. She was in no mood to have the blonde laugh and call her a pervert, so she was trying to get through as much as she could now while she had some privacy.

She wasn't paying much attention to the TV; it was mainly just on as a distraction. A newswoman was on the screen talking about some sort of big summit set to take place in New York City at the end of the year that would involve leaders of nations from all over the globe. Diplomacy, economy, aid, blah blah blah. It was more or less in one ear and out the other for Misaka, who was far more interested in her manga. The romance was developing so well...

A loud thump against the door to the apartment made her jump and shove the manga underneath the pillow, but the drunken giggling eventually grew fainter as the partygoers stumbled away. Mikoto shook her head and reached for her manga again. She and Misaki avoided interacting with the other tenants in the apartment complex as much as possible, but this wasn't the first time an overly loud drunk got on her nerves,

This apartment complex was too busy, and she and Misaki had to be careful not to attract the wrong kind of attention. Maybe they needed to start thinking about finding a new place.

Notice #12
July 26th, 2012

"I think it's time you gave up, Misaka."

"What do you know?!" she snarled, glaring down at the equipment in front of her and refusing to look at Shokuhou. "You don't even know anything about magic!"

"No, I don't," the blonde agreed, not backing down in the face of Mikoto's anger. "I have very little experience with it. I know that it exists, or existed where we came from at least, and that it seems to be tied into religion in some way. You have more experience dealing with it; I can't deny that."

"Then shut up and let me work on this!" she huffed.

"Why? So you can keep failing and getting angry about it? Face it, Misaka: you've hit a wall."

"I can walk up walls," she said petulantly.

"Very funny," Misaki said, not sounding amused at all. "You know what I mean. Your electromagnetism is doing you no good here, and neither is whatever knowledge you have of magic and the way it worked back home. You don't have the technology or the ability to recreate the magical side of the Anti-Art Attachment, and the more you try to get it working, the greater the chance that you hurt or even kill yourself."

Mikoto crossed her arms and started at the far wall, but she couldn't refute anything that the other girl was saying. She'd been able to create a modified version of the suit for herself while at Tokiwadai, but trying to do so here was not going nearly as well. Aside from the technology in Academy City being several decades more sophisticated than anything she could get her hands on here, the magic seemed to work differently here than it did there. That didn't make sense; even half a world away and decades in the past, surely the theory behind it shouldn't have changed on such a fundamental level? Yet that was the only explanation that made any sense to her.

She knew that a non-magician tinkering with magic carried the potential for dire consequences, but all of her experimentation hadn't seemed to physically affect her at all. Perhaps she was coming at this from the wrong direction?

"You're right," she said with a sigh, all the fight leaving her body as she admitted the truth.

"I'm sorry; am I hearing things?" Shokuhou said. "Did the great Mikoto Misaka, Academy City's #3, the great Railgun actually admit she's wrong?"

Mikoto looked up and saw Misaki smirking at her, sticking her tongue out and posing with her fingers spread in a V over one eye.

"Don't get used to it," Mikoto said, rolling her eyes despite the small smile that came to her face. "I'm not going to give up, exactly. But I WILL stop trying to work on this until I have more to go on."

--

August 2012
Present Day

"Thank you for allowing me in," Drumm said, relaxing on the couch in Mikoto and Shokuhou's apartment. "I was worried that this conversation wouldn't get off to the best start, especially after how badly the Avengers mishandled their meeting with you after the battle."

"Are you with them?" Misaka asked, narrowing her eyes at him. Steve Rogers notwithstanding, she didn't have the highest opinion of the Avengers, and hearing him mention them put her on edge. Drumm laughed and shook his head.

"No," he said, still looking amused at the thought. "I am part of an order far, far older than the Avengers, or SHIELD, the government agency that put them together."

"And how are you different?" Misaki asked. Mikoto saw the other girl's hand fishing around in her shoulder bag, obviously fingering one of her remotes in case she didn't like his answer. Misaka was somewhat surprised she hadn't pulled one out before he'd even walked into the apartment. She was glad for her restraint though. Whoever this man was, he had come alone. She didn't see any way that he could pose a threat to them all by himself. It would be simple enough for Misaki to use her Mental Out and find out who he was and why he was here, but she'd prefer not to do that if possible. He knew far too much about them to be some normal person who'd just come here by chance, and preemptively acting against him might draw attention from whoever he associated with.

"The Avengers deal with protecting the Earth from physical dangers," Drumm explained. "My order deals with threats of a mystical nature."

"Mystical?" Misaka said, perking up and looking at the man with much greater interest. "You mean like magic?"

"Indeed," he said. "I represent the Masters of the Mystical Arts, an order of sorcerers created in ancient times when Agamotto, the first in a long line of Sorcerer Supremes, discovered the existence of other dimensions and found ways in which he could draw upon power from these alternate universes for the purpose of creating magic spells. But he also realized that these other dimensions created the possibility of our planet coming under threat by multidimensional beings not of this world. That is why he created our order, and we continue to carry out our mission to this very day."

"Huh," Misaka said. It made sense. It might not have a few months ago, but after her little trip through the portal she could hardly doubt the existence of any of the things he was talking about. Internally her mind was racing, though she did her best to mask it. This man and his order of sorcerers sounded like they could be the first real lead they'd found since getting sent here. Even if they didn't know of a way for them to go home, maybe they would at least be able to give them some kind of idea of how to best proceed.

"So what brings you to us?" she asked. As hopeful as she was, she didn't want to play her hand too quickly. He was making a much better first impression than the Avengers had, she'd give him that. There were no weapons being pointed in their face, and he wasn't looking at them with any sort of suspicion or hostility. Still, she wasn't going to trust him or reveal too much just yet. Better to find out how much he knew first.

"My master, the current Sorcerer Supreme, detected your arrival via the interdimensional portal during the battle against Loki," he said. "We've been monitoring you since that time, discretely of course."

"Spying, you mean?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"We do not concern ourselves with the actions, transactions, partnerships or decisions you take in your daily lives, legal or not," he was quick to assure them. "As I said, my order deals with mystical threats. Anything you do outside of that is none of our concern, and we will not divulge anything we have learned with any other agency. As long as you do not pose a threat of a mystical nature, my order and I have no reason to interfere with you in any way."

"How can we trust that?" Misaka asked. She was somewhat mollified that he and his order apparently weren't sharing what they learned with anyone else, but how could she and Misaki trust that these Masters of the Mystical Arts weren't a threat all their own?

"You can choose to trust in me because I have chosen to trust in you," he said cryptically.

"I don't like riddles," Shokuhou said, sounding annoyed. It drew a laugh from Drumm.

"Very well, I will speak plainly then. As I said, we have monitored you, not to interfere with you, but merely to assess if you might pose a mystical threat to Earth. That doesn't mean we didn't learn things about you in the course of our observation, things that I could have exploited and prepared for to better protect myself in case this meeting went poorly. Yet I deliberately chose not to take such precautions, as a show of good faith and trust."

"You call that plainly?" Misaka asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"We have witnessed your friend's unique power to take control of other humans with her remotes," he said calmly. Misaka stiffened and Shokuhou gripped her shoulder bag tightly, but Drumm looked perfectly relaxed. "I have no natural defense against this technique, whatever it is, but my order does possess an ancient magical artifact that I believe would protect my mind from your assault. I could have brought it with me here today, but I did not do so. I don't consider you a threat, and neither does my order. We wish for this to be an amicable conversation, so I decided to forego any thought of battle or of defending myself."

"That's quite a lot of trust you're putting in someone you've never met, and who you've apparently seen using this power on other people," Misaki said. Her grip on her bag remained tight as ever.

"I have," he nodded. "Though our observations have never shown you to do so in a malicious manner. You've used it selfishly, perhaps, but never in a way that will cause any sort of lasting harm to the recipient. I don't believe you will do so to me either, unless I've sorely misjudged you."

"Interesting," Shokuhou said, smirking. "Misaka here wasn't nearly so quick to trust me." Mikoto noticed that the girl's posture relaxed, and her death grip on her shoulder bag was released.

"Truly?" he said, sounding surprised. "Your relationship has seemed amicable enough, based on what I've seen."

"Wasn't always that way," Misaka said.

"Indeed." Shokuhou nodded and struck a superior pose. "Dear Misaka used to be quite jealous of my brilliance, but she's learned to overcome it after seeing how invaluable I am."

"Shut up," Misaka said, rolling her eyes, though there was no real heat in her voice. Then she turned back to Drumm. "So why are you here? Can you help us get home?" He'd made a good impression on her, but he also already knew enough about them that there wasn't much point in avoiding the topic that most concerned her.

The way he frowned answered the question and dashed her hopes without him really needing to say a word. He obviously didn't possess any clear-cut knowledge that was going to make their return simple, but she couldn't say she was really surprised by that. Disappointed, yes, but not surprised. Maybe he could at least give her something to work with though?

"I wish I could give you the answers you seek, but I'm afraid I don't know," he admitted. "While we know interdimensional travel is possible, we do not know the specifics on how it can be done."

"No one in this ancient order of yours has ever been able to figure it out?" Misaki asked, pouting. "There's not some dusty book or old tattered scroll tucked away somewhere that could spell it out for us?"

"Knowledge does get lost in the sands of time," Drumm conceded. "I cannot say for certain that such a document has never existed, or does not exist even to this day. But if that knowledge can still be found on this planet, neither I nor my master are aware of its location. I know that's not what you want to hear, but it is the truth."

"So that's it?" Misaka asked, frowning. "There's nothing you can tell us about it? Nothing at all, beyond that it's possible?"

"We know that it requires massive amounts of power, as well as a tremendous sacrifice," Drumm explained. "Beyond that, the methods are unclear."

"I hope you didn't come here hoping WE had the answers just because your master saw us come through that portal," Mikoto said.

"No." He shook his head and shifted in his seat, getting more comfortable on their couch. "Once the battle was done and my master had the opportunity to observe you, it was obvious you hadn't come through willingly."

"No," she agreed. "We were chasing a suspicious magician who was lurking around where they shouldn't have been. Then we wound up here." Drumm said nothing in response to that, simply giving her a nod, and she wondered if he'd already learned that in his 'observation' of them.

"So you'd already determined we aren't a threat to you, and you knew we wouldn't be able to tell you anything you didn't already know," Shokuhou said. When Drumm nodded, she continued. "Then why'd you reveal yourself to us? It's been three months. Why'd you come here now?" That was a good question, and one Mikoto was interested to hear the answer to as well.

"Ah, yes." He leaned forward on the couch to look at Mikoto more closely. "We are curious about this weapon you are constructing, or attempting to construct." So it was the Anti-Art attachment he was interested in.

"What about it?" she asked. If it were one of the Avengers questioning her she'd be highly defensive and expecting a sudden attack. She didn't expect that from Daniel Drumm, not after he'd so freely spoken with them.

"Again, I will stress that we are not accusing you of anything, and we do not consider you a threat," he said. "But we are curious as to why you would need such a weapon. What sort of foe are you expecting to fight, that you would need this weapon that would combine magic with normal weaponry?"

Mikoto hesitated at first, wondering how much to divulge, how much he would even believe. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that if anyone might understand, it might be Drumm and these Masters of the Mystic Arts.

"Have you ever heard of a magic god?"

--

Daniel Drumm had seen much in his time as a Master of the Mystic Arts, but rarely had he been as shell-shocked as he currently felt. His mind was still reeling from the battles Mikoto Misaka had just described to him.

He'd been left speechless as she talked about her fight against High Priest. It was obvious she felt it had been a failure on her part, that how easily Niang-Niang and Nepthys toyed with her had revealed that High Priest had been fighting at nowhere approaching his full strength. But he did not see failure or weakness in her recounting of the events. If these 'magic gods' of hers were truly as powerful as she claimed them to be, her doing as well as she did against even one who was using only a fraction of his true power spoke volumes about her own strength. He was fairly familiar with Shokuhou Misaki's power, having seen her use it often enough, but he hadn't really seen Mikoto in a true fight. He'd been sure she was formidable, but now he was beginning to think she might be far stronger than he'd first thought.

Her description sounded very impressive, but he couldn't be sure of how powerful these 'magic gods' actually were. The closest comparison he could think of was Dormammu. Had she really fought and held her own against a being of that power, even if he was heavily restricting himself?

This was something he had no knowledge of, and something that begged further investigation. He'd excused himself rather abruptly, eager to begin. He wanted to research this matter right away, and also consult with the Ancient One.

--

"He sure left in a hurry, huh?"

"Sure did," Mikoto said, agreeing with Shokuhou. "That was abrupt."

"He didn't seem angry, at least."

"No." Mikoto shook her head. "He seemed, hmm…"

"Ecstatic?"

"Yeah. That's a good word. Ecstatic."

But what about her story had excited Daniel Drumm?

 

[Mayor Haggar]

"Do you think Drumm is going to be able to help us?"

There was no hint of jest on Misaki's face or in her tone, so Mikoto could only assume the question had been asked in all seriousness. She bit her lower lip and considered her answer with equal seriousness, tuning out the news program playing on the TV.

"I think he will if he can, and I think he's the best lead we've found so far," she said eventually. Despite his casual admission of having spied on them and monitoring their activities, she did not doubt his sincerity or his intentions. And simply on the basis of being able to detect their arrival in this alternate world and understanding what it was and how it had happened, he and the Masters of the Mystical Arts were better equipped to help them than anyone on the planet as far as she could see. And yet…

"But we shouldn't get our hopes up that he, or his group, are going to be able to get us home," Shokuhou said, nodding at her. It seemed the blonde had already reached the same conclusion she had.

"Right." They couldn't rely on anyone else to pull them out of this situation. They would be glad to accept any help or advice Drumm or the Masters might be able to offer, but they shouldn't wait around for someone to hand them all the answers they sought.

"We're Academy City Level 5s," Misaki said, letting some of her familiar haughty arrogance shine through. "Even if no one else can help us or point us in the right direction, we can and will figure it out on our own eventually."

"You said it," Mikoto said, smiling at her. "We just need to keep looking."

Daniel Drumm's master might have been able to sense their arrival and explain how they got here, but apparently neither she nor the magic side she represented knew enough to help them get back home. Misaka had some experience dealing with the magic side back on her own world, but by no means was it her area of expertise. She and Shokuhou were from Academy City. Not only that, they were two of Academy City's strongest and smartest. If magic couldn't help them, they needed to focus on what they knew best. Maybe science was the answer. Even though it had been a magician who sent them here, maybe science could provide a countermeasure that magic could not.

"We need to get on with finding a new apartment," Misaka said, bringing back an old topic. "Getting out of here and into a better, more isolated place will make it much easier for us to do whatever research we need to do."

"Fine with me," Shokuhou said, shrugging her shoulders as she sat down next to her on the couch. "You know I'm not attached to this place in the least."

"Me neither," Mikoto said. "I'm thinking we should make a list of what kind of features we're looking for, and then we'll start looking into less populated areas that might fit what…we…need."

She'd trailed off towards the end of her sentence, with the last couple of words coming out barely above a whisper. The current story on the news had caught her attention once it mentioned Japan. Even though Academy City had never been created in this alternate universe they'd been sent to, she still couldn't help but be interested in any news about her former homeland.

"We'll be back after this short break with more on this breaking story of an oil rig explosion off the coast of Japan, apparently the latest in a string of bombings by the mysterious figure known as The Mandarin. We'll talk to our correspondent Lee Danielson, who will give us all the latest on The Mandarin and the ongoing efforts to find and capture him, and later, environmental expert Hector Martinez will discuss what comes next. More after this."

"An oil rig bombing in Japan, huh?" Mikoto said, frowning at the TV. "I wonder what that's all about."

"Who knows?" Misaki responded, shrugging her shoulders. "But whoever was behind it, I'm sure the Avengers are caught up in it in some way. They seem to have a knack for creating chaos."

--

Dojima Oil Rig
Japan

Steve Rogers had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. No mission was ever really comfortable; while remaining calm and composed was vital, you couldn't afford to get complacent. This was different though.

"It's still hard for me to believe that we're being sent into Japan," he said while looking at Black Widow, who was sitting across from him in the submarine. "I thought this was outside SHIELD's jurisdiction, and the Japanese government didn't want us butting in.' That was definitely what Fury had said before.

"Ordinarily you'd be right," Natasha said, adjusting her gear as they neared their drop-off point. "But if those two girls currently hanging around in New York City are Japanese HYDRA agents, that's all the justification we need to deal with the group."

"There's no way Mikoto Misaka is with HYDRA," he said, shaking his head and frowning at her.

"I know you believe that," Natasha said neutrally. "But there's reason enough for us to be suspicious, and it's undeniable that those girls are a potential threat as long as they remain in the city."

"I don't like this," he said. "I trust those girls."

"Then think of this as your chance to clear them," Clint Barton interjected while examining his bow. "We go in, see if we can find any info on the girls or on what HYDRA is up to in general, and get out. Maybe we can finally find out that you were right after all."

Steve had his doubts that Natasha or especially Clint would ever stop being suspicious of the girls, but he wouldn't let that affect him. He did not expect to find any incriminating information on Mikoto or her friend, but he wouldn't pass up on a chance to deal a blow to HYDRA. No matter the country or the branch, he would never be satisfied knowing that that group lived on.

SHIELD was taking this mission very seriously. An elite four man STRIKE unit was joining him, Natasha and Clint to infiltrate the rig that also operated as a HYDRA base. They were leaving nothing to chance. He wasn't sure how he felt about the STRIKE team. They weren't soldiers, men he trusted implicitly to watch his back like he'd had back during World War II, but at least they were highly trained. SHIELD wouldn't send anyone but the best they had.

Steve was the first out of the submarine when they arrived, and the first to begin climbing the rigs that would lead them to the main body. They moved quickly, not wanting to give the HYDRA agents on site any time to spot them and coordinate a response. The infiltration team went into action as soon as they reached the scaffolding. The STRIKE agents showed no compunction about shooting to kill, neutralizing their foes in the most permanent way possible with the SHIELD-provided guns that were completely silent. Steve held no love for anyone with ties to HYDRA, but he still tried to subdue them in a non-lethal fashion. He grabbed one guard, slammed him against the wall and began punching, using his fists to defeat the enemy rather than a firearm. The guard didn't go down easily though. He remained defiant despite the beating Steve was putting on him, and grinned at him with blood in his mouth.

"Hail HYDRA," the guard muttered. He brought his gun up and leveled it at Steve's head at point-blank range. Steve narrowed his eyes and prepared to make a lunge for the gun, but he never had a reason to. Black Widow took the guard out with a perfectly-placed throwing knife to the side of the head. The guard sank to his knees, the gun falling harmlessly from his hand.

"Keep your head in the game, Rogers," Natasha said quietly. "These guys are HYDRA. No need to show them mercy."

Steve brushed it off and then focused on continuing his forward progress. Their infiltration had been going well so far. Almost too well.

The thought had barely entered his mind when an alarm began to blare. Someone had spotted them and pulled an alarm, triggering the base's security measures. Now the entire base would be on high alert. Their mission had just gotten a whole lot more interesting, and a whole lot more difficult.

"Of course," he said, sighing as he sprinted directly at three oncoming enemies.

--

Elsewhere on the rig

Kihara Gensei watched the security feed with great interest. Despite his advanced age, his sharp eyes did not miss a thing. He observed the team that continued to make forward progress despite being faced with greater pressure now that the alarm had been raised. Gensei could have alerted everyone far sooner, of course; he'd been watching the intruders from the moment they'd arrived. Why had he not sounded the alarm, and why was he smiling even as his own agents were being eliminated one by one?

To Kihara, human life held little value. It was research that ruled his life, and scientific advancement that he prized above all else. Even the other HYDRA agents were expendable to him. He would gladly sacrifice every last one of them if it meant he got to learn something new as a result. It was for that reason that the old man in the lab coat smiled as he watched his guards try and fail to stop the intruders.

The STRIKE team was of no interest to him. They were skilled soldiers, trained killers, and they carried out their job effectively and efficiently, but they were not truly special and thus he had no time for them. It was the other three that commanded all of his attention.

Kihara was often preoccupied with his experiments, but even he was aware of Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. He had heard the names and was familiar with their abilities, but this was his first chance to truly observe what they could do in real time. It was a rare opportunity.

Hawkeye and Black Widow fought well. They were clearly several steps above even the highly skilled forces accompanying them, moving with a speed and a decisive, deadly intent that the average human soldier could not hope to match. Yet even they paled in comparison to the living legend dressed in the red, white and blue.

The moment he'd heard the story of Steve Rogers being pulled out of the ice, he'd wished he could strap the World War II relic to a table and perform all manner of experiments on him. Getting to watch him now was a true treat. He was the only member of his team not fighting to kill his enemies, and yet he was the one in the least danger. Perhaps the HYDRA squad would have had a chance if it had been just Black Widow and Hawkeye along with the regular STRIKE unit, if they'd managed to land a lucky shot on one of the two members of importance. But this battle had been decided the moment Steve Rogers got off of that submarine. With him at the helm, HYDRA had no chance.

There was something else he could do, however. It was time to see how the would-be heroes would fare against the results of his recent experiments.

--

Steve grunted as he fought off another would-be attacker. None of these HYDRA agents had been much of a challenge on their own, but the sheer numbers that kept rushing them were impeding their path and greatly slowing their progress. All hopes of stealth were long gone; now it was just about getting where they needed to go and carrying out their mission while doing their best to avoid casualties.

"Attention, all security on sector alpha," a monotone voice said over the speakers. "Initiate Defense Plan Limiter. Repeat, all security on sector alpha, initiate Defense Plan Limiter."

"Any clue what that means?" Steve said, flicking his eyes over to Natasha, hoping against hope that this might be something SHIELD already knew about and was prepared for.

"Not a clue," she said, dashing that faint hope right away.

"Whatever it is, I'm betting it's not good," Barton said, firing an arrow throw a HYDRA agent's neck while the man was attempting to pull something out of the pocket of his uniform.

It soon became obvious what that guard had been trying to do, because all the other members of HYDRA popped some kind of pill into their mouths at the same time. The closest guard was knocked unconscious when Steve picked him up and threw him against the wall, but there was nothing he could do to stop the others.

They didn't have to wait long to see the results of this pill. The HYDRA guards suddenly fought with drastically increased strength and speed, turning the tide of the battle abruptly. The STRIKE unit struggled to combat their much tougher and more aggressive foes, and even Steve, Clint and Natasha found themselves in more of a fight.

"What the hell was in those pills?!" Clint shouted, firing three arrows in quick succession out of sheer necessity.

"Don't know!" Natasha said. She was having to put all her training to use to avoid getting hit.

One of the members of the STRIKE unit wasn't so lucky. He could not react in time as one of the guards ran at him full-speed and buried his shoulder into his chest. The STRIKE team member went flying back into the wall behind him with unbelievable force and a sickening crack that made Steve wince. That man was down and not getting up, and Steve knew there was no need to check on him or wait for him to get up. No normal human could survive that kind of impact.

"We need to make a run for it!" Natasha shouted. "If every guard in this sector took one of those pills, we should head straight for the next sector!" Steve nodded and they sprinted forward, only to discover that the blast door leading to the next sector had been closed.

"Well there goes that idea," Steve said. "How about we go back the way we came then? Maybe those pills will wear off eventually." And even if they didn't, it could at least give them a chance to regroup.

"I'll check it out," Barton said. He lingered in the background since he liked to fight at range with his bow, so it was easiest for him to investigate it himself. Steve held his breath, waiting for the archer to return with his findings. "No good," he said. "They've closed that door too."

"We're sealed in, then," Natasha said. She didn't sound panicked, which Steve could only assume was thanks to her training. Her mind was probably hard at work on coming up with alternatives.

"Damn," Steve muttered, banging his fist on the wall. Then he cocked his head and looked at the wall for a second. If they couldn't go back and they couldn't go forward, maybe they could go straight through. "I think I've got an idea."

"Let's hear it," Natasha said.

"It's a little crazy."

"Our team is in danger of getting overrun," Clint pointed out. "I'd say now's as good a time as any to get crazy."

--

Kihara Gensei smiled as he watched the Avengers blow a hole through the wall. That had been a creative solution to the problem he'd posed for them. They were not letting him down, that was for sure.

They probably could have held out long enough to outlast the enhanced guards blocking their path through sector alpha. The pills they'd taken did not give the guards any additional strength or added abilities that they did not already possess within their bodies. It was a drug of his creation, one that removed the limiters the human body normally puts on itself as a matter of self-preservation. His drug overcame those boring restrictions, allowing the human body to use up all of its strength while leaving nothing in reserve. The downside to this, at least for the user, is that their body would give out on them pretty quickly and begin to shut down. The guards in the sector would have weakened before long, and then the intruders would have a simple time progressing. The STRIKE unit would have likely been wiped out completely. Hawkeye and Black Widow would have been able to outlast the guards in all probability, however, and Captain America's survival obviously would not have been in question. They had no way of knowing that, though, so the solution they chose was a sound one given the information they had, especially since this had never been a real oil rig. That was simply a cover for this base's existence, and this base had been created specifically as a place for Kihara Gensei to perform his research and experiments.

"Very good, Avengers," he said to himself in Japanese. "But let's see how you handle my next surprise."

They might have thought they were in the clear, and the danger was largely behind them now that they were out of sector alpha, but they were very, very wrong.

--

"You're a genius, Cap," one of the three remaining STRIKE members said as he ran beside him. Steve just shook his head. They had made it out of the sector, true, but it had come at a cost. He, Clint and Natasha were unscathed, but the STRIKE unit was down one member. He never liked to lose a man, and their numbers had dwindled before their objective was even in sight. This mission was teetering on the edge as far as he was concerned.

"Attention, sector beta," the same monotone voice said over the speakers once again.

"Oh shit, not this again," Clint sighed.

"Initiate Defense Plan Fury. Repeat, sector beta, initiate Defense Plan Fury."

"Fury?" Steve said, raising his eyebrows. If what they'd just been through was something as comparatively harmless-sounding as 'limiter', how much worse was 'fury' going to be?

As soon as the announcement had been made, they could hear a shuttering somewhere off in the distance, as well as a gentle whoosh of air escaping. Steve narrowed his eyes, trying to figure out what exactly had just happened, but Natasha had more experience at this kind of thing and thus was able to provide clarification.

"They've completely sealed this entire sector off from the rest of the rig," she said, her head rapidly turning back and forth as she examined their surroundings. Her mind was running a mile a minute, trying to anticipate what the opponent's next move might be and how they would need to respond.

A mechanical whirring drew Steve's attention skywards, where gas nozzles suddenly appeared from the ceiling.

"Shit," Hawkeye muttered from beside him, already reaching into his equipment. Steve, no less quick on the response, was in motion as well.

"Gas masks on!" Natasha shouted, making sure the STRIKE team members got the message as well. She put her mask securely over her face not long after Steve and Clint had gotten theirs on, and the STRIKE team quickly followed suit. They were highly trained and most had responded automatically before Natasha had even opened her mouth, so their response time was good.

That quick response time didn't help one unlucky soul, who had the misfortune of being equipped with a defective gas mask. Steve's eyes widened as he saw the exterior display of the man's mask flash red, indicating a malfunction. The man's mask was doing him no good, leaving him completely exposed and vulnerable to whatever chemical the nozzles were beginning to spray into the air.

The man's hands flew to his head for a moment, as if he was trying to pull the mask off, and then he let out an ear-piercing scream. It wasn't a scream of terror though. Steve had heard plenty of those both during the war and since he'd been pulled out of the ice, and that's not what this was. This was an insane, mindless, angry scream, the scream of someone who was no longer in control of their faculties. It was a sound that no human being would ever be able to produce while in their right mind.

"Watch out!" Steve shouted, trying to warn those who were closer to the afflicted individual, but there was little time to react and even less room to maneuver. The man closest to the affected brought his gun up in defense, but it was easily wrestled out of his grasp. Then he was mercilessly pummeled with punch after punch after punch. The infected man swung his fists wildly, attacking with a frantic, manic energy. His target did his best to fight back and defend himself, but his self-preservation instincts were no match for the mindless, berserk rage that the drug was infecting the other man with. There was no question about who was going to win this fight.

Natasha's first shot struck the infected man's left leg. He showed no reaction to the incredible pain that surely should have been coursing through his body. The drug must have taken hold of his brain to the point that it could no longer communicate with the rest of the body about danger, pain, fear or any other human concerns. He was a mindless beast rather than a man at this point, focused only on using his bare hands to crush the man who had the bad luck to be his target.

The Black Widow's next bullet struck the other leg, and now the inflicted's body was forced to its knees. He continued to fight even then, punching and even biting at the knees of the man he was fighting, who was now slumped against the wall behind him. The next shot took him in the ribs, and Natasha showed no mercy whatsoever with the next bullet, which was straight through the head. Barton put an arrow through his throat at the same time for good measure, ensuring that the man was very, very dead. Even the drugs pumping through his system couldn't keep his body going through all of that, and his lifeless body fell onto what remained of its face.

Steve stepped forward, pushing past the sole STRIKE agent still standing so he could check on the man who had been attacked. He was slumped down against the wall, his gas mask shattered into pieces from the force of the other man's blows, and a cursory look revealed that he would not be getting back up. If the numerous hits to his temple had not been fatal, the crushed windpipe certainly would have done it. With him and the man who had attacked him both down, three of the four members of STRIKE were dead. There was just one left, along with himself, Clint and Natasha.

"We're dropping like flies," Barton said through his gas mask, shaking his head.

"Let's just move on," Steve said. "We still have a mission to finish." He wasn't happy about all the losses they'd taken, but the least they could do was see this through to the end, gather the intel they needed on HYDRA's operations and make sure that the fallen hadn't lost their lives for nothing.

Every other gas mask had worked as intended, but that didn't mean their road was going to get any easier. It was only after their own crisis had been dealt with that Steve took note of the yells, growls and screams emanating from inside the other nearby rooms. All of their force had remained together, so this obviously wasn't any of them.

"Did they infect their own people?" he asked out loud. Not even HYDRA could be that callous, could they?

They got a little closer, close enough to see inside through the window of one of the rooms. The HYDRA armed security and the scientists in white lab coats were at war with each other, punching and kicking and even biting. It was strange to see scientists fighting so readily against guards, but that just went along with the effects of the drug. They were no longer armed killers or men of science; they were now all just berserk husks inside human bodies, beings that now existed solely to try and tear each other limb from limb. As if to drive that point home, a scientist looked towards the window and spotted them. He spit an ear out of his mouth and ran towards the window, baring his teeth which were dripping with blood. He snarled at them, but soon was attacked from behind by another scientist.

Steve had thought even HYDRA had limits, that they wouldn't subject their own men to such horror, but somehow the group had still managed to surprise him in the worst way despite everything he'd seen from them during World War II.

"What do we do now?" the remaining STRIKE member asked.

"Same thing as before," Natasha said. "If the doors leading from one sector to the next are closed off, we'll blow our way through." Steve nodded in agreement. It was the only solution he could see, and it had worked just fine last time. Subtlety had long since been thrown out the window, and the explosive, dramatic path was all they had left to them.

Perhaps they should have thought this through a bit more, because there was an additional element to consider that hadn't been there the first time they'd resorted to blowing another hole in the rig. There were still fairly significant concentrations of gas in the air of sector beta. The gas hadn't been able to reach the other sectors at all since beta had been quarantined off, but now that was all changing. Thanks to them blowing their way straight into sector gamma, the gas was now spreading throughout the entire rig via the HVAC system and infecting anyone who wasn't wearing a mask. They witnessed the unintentional results of their handiwork as they sprinted through sector gamma. Scientists and guards fought each other mindlessly, engaged in a senseless fight to the death with people they would have considered acquaintances at the very least, if not legitimate friends, minutes earlier. Steve could only shake his head in disgust at this proof of how low HYDRA was willing to sink.

"Well, at least this makes our job easier," Barton pointed out. Steve couldn't deny that the man had a point. With HYDRA too busy being turned against each other by their own chemical weapon, there was no one around to impede their progress. It should be a straight shot to the control room, which should contain the answers they seek. Hopefully the sick bastard that had set all this up would be there too. Steve very much wanted to punch his lights out.

They ran full speed ahead until they reached the control room. The STRIKE member flung the door open, and Steve narrowed his eyes.

"If this Kihara guy is really in there, wouldn't he have at least locked the door?" he whispered to Natasha.

"I'd certainly think so," she said, staring straight ahead with her gun loaded and at the ready. "Only one way to find out."

Steve's suspicion had been correct: the control room was empty. A series of monitors showed different areas of the rig, so if this Kihara Gensei had been here, he'd been able to watch their progress for some time. It had probably been him that activated those defense protocols, willingly poisoning and killing his own men just to impede their progress. What a sick bastard.

"There's a note card on the desk," Barton said, nodding his head to his left. Steve picked it up and held it up to his face. There was a USB stick underneath said note, but he ignored it for the time being in favor of examining the note.

"It's written in Japanese," he said, frowning.

"Give it here," Natasha said, holding out her hand. He handed the note to her, and she quickly scanned it.

"Modern Japanese," she said. "Combination of kanji and kana."

"Can you read it?" Steve asked, impatient for her to get to the point. The sooner they got off of this rig and back onto the sub, the better.

"Of course," she said, her eyes already moving back and forth across the paper. The way her frown grew progressively deeper told Steve that this wasn't going to be anything good for them, not that he'd expected much different as soon as they'd found the room empty.

"Feel free to fill the rest of us in any time," Barton said sarcastically, echoing Steve's own impatience.

"Kihara wrote it," she started. "He's mockingly thanking us for helping him test out the rig's defenses."

"Is that all this was to him?" Steve said. "A test?" He could feel a fresh wave of anger bubbling. How badly he'd like to hit something right now, preferably Kihara Gensei's face.

"To thank us for our help, he left us this USB stick," Natasha continued. Steve picked the stick up and rolled it around in his hand. "He says it has lots of information about the HYDRA cells in the United States."

"But nothing about the Japanese branch," Steve said. "And nothing to say one way or the other whether or not Mikoto and her friend have ties to the Japanese HYDRA."

"Meaning that the entire purpose of coming here, the entire objective of this mission, was a total failure," Barton finished.

"Looks that way," Natasha said. She crumpled the note up in her hand and threw it on the ground. Steve sighed and turned away, walking out of the control room.

"Let's head out," he said.

The other three followed him back the way they'd come. They faced no resistance whatsoever in sectors gamma or beta, and the guards they hadn't dealt with in sector alpha were now unconscious or worse. Apparently those pills they'd taken only powered them up for a limited time, and the aftereffects weren't pretty.

They planted explosives on their way out of the rig. What had happened here could not be allowed to go public, so their only option was to blow up the evidence. Setting fire to the rig was going to draw all sorts of attention, but it was agreed that there was no other alternative.

Once they were back below and reached the mini sub that was there for the extraction, they triggered the explosives. Steve watched the rig burn and shook his head. He'd never considered himself a poetic man, but that fire seemed a fitting symbol to mark their failure. The rig, much like their mission, was going down in flames.

"Well that was a resounding success," Barton said.

--

"So you not only failed to catch Kihara or get any information, but you lost three men and blew the entire rig up," Nick Fury said, rattling off their failures one by one. "I thought I was sending in the best team I could field, a team I could trust to get the job done. Apparently I thought wrong."

Steve, Clint and Natasha took the dressing down in silence. It wasn't like they could say much in their own defense. Steve didn't think any of their decisions had been poor in the moment, but the end result was an undeniable failure in both objective and in loss of life.

"Fortunately we were able to feed the media the story that the Mandarin was responsible for the bombing," Fury continued. "The public isn't any wiser about what happened there. But that doesn't make this mission any less of a failure."

"No argument there," Steve said, slumping over in his seat aboard the helicarrier. "Makes me want to get back out there and take on another mission ASAP, just to get this bad taste out of my mouth."

"Then you might want to consider some mouthwash, Captain Rogers, because you won't be going back out in the field any time soon. Same for you, Romanoff and Barton."

"Sir?" Natasha said, sitting up in her chair. Steve could tell she didn't like the sound of that, and he tended to agree.

"All three of you are on light duty for the foreseeable future," Fury said. He held up his hand to forestall the objection Natasha so badly wanted to make. "You're going to be in charge of SHIELD's security contribution to the summit in New York in December."

"That's months from now," Clint pointed out. Fury nodded and raised his eyebrows.

"Yes it is. The summit is snowballing beyond what anyone was expecting. The number of attendees from all over the world grows by the day, and with all those important politicians and foreign dignitaries in attendance comes the need for complicated and thorough security measures."

"Don't you have other people for that?" Steve asked.

"Of course. And while you're on light duty, you'll be working closely alongside them, working with them to coordinate every last detail of SHIELD's contribution to the security measures. So I suggest you prepare yourselves for several months of mind-numbing boredom and minutia while you reflect on this failed mission."

"So, I really don't want to say anything that might make you try and rope me into this whole security detail, but can I say something?" Bruce Banner said. Banner, who was still residing on the helicarrier until Tony finished with the remodel of Stark Tower, had wandered in during the lecture and watched in silence until that point.

"What is it, doctor?" Fury asked, turning to look at him. For his part, Steve was just glad the focus was no longer on him. Whatever point Banner wanted to make, he was glad to hear it.

"Maybe this is just the gamma radiation talking," Banner began, "but am I the only one worried about HYDRA running some kind of experiment to create a mindless, super-human berserker out of nothing other than drugs and chemicals?"

--

The Ancient One nodded to herself, satisfied at the results of her observation so far. She was doing a routine check to ensure that the wards protecting the world were still working as intended, and thus far had found nothing out of the ordinary. All appeared to be well.

She suddenly snapped to attention when she felt a ripple, a disturbance that required her immediate attention. She activated her sling ring, creating a temporary portal to deposit her directly at the Hong Kong sanctuary. Despite the instantaneous travel, she seemed to be too late. The sanctuary was already almost completely destroyed.

She had not been the only Master to take note of the disturbance. Others arrived as she walked through the remnants of the sanctuary and helped her with stabilizing the wards. The Masters had varying reactions.

"We must hunt them down," Karl Mordo said with an intense expression on his face. "Hunt them down and destroy them."

"There will be time for that later," Daniel Drumm said dismissively. "Ancient One, I wish to update you on our two teenage interdimensional travelers. I had a chance to meet with them, and I've learned some very interesting things about them both."

"You spoke with interdimensional travelers," Mordo said. "Spoke."

"Yes, that's what I said," Drumm answered casually. "It was a very interesting chat."

"And why would you do that?" Mordo demanded. "Interdimensional travelers are a threat. They should be killed immediately, and yet you engage them in friendly conversation?"

"Your problem, Mordo, is that you deal in absolutes. The universe doesn't work that way, my friend," Drumm said, not intimidated by the other man's anger.

The Ancient One was only superficially aware of the argument the two men were having. She was examining the bodies of those who had been in the sanctuary when it was attacked. Some of the bodies were riddled with bullets, and a few bore signs of blunt physical trauma. The most confusing ones, however, were the ones that looked as if they had died while fighting each other. What possible explanation could there be for that? She walked further forward, ignoring the argument between Drumm and Mordo.

"Your casual dismissal of such a clear and obvious threat disgraces you as a Master of the Mystic Arts," Mordo said.

"And your stubbornness could one day leave you making an enemy out of someone that could have been an ally," Drumm retorted. "But I guess you don't care about—"

"Quiet," Mordo said. He'd noticed that The Ancient One had stopped moving, and came to find out why. "Ancient One?"

She did not turn to speak with him, or acknowledge him in any way. She just stared straight ahead, her mind reeling as she felt true fear for one of the only times in her many centuries of life.

"Ancient One, what is it?" Drumm asked, walking up to stand on her other side. She continued to stare directly in front of her, and when the two men stopped speaking to her and instead focused on where she was looking, they could see what had her so concerned.

In front of her was an old, old display case, which contained two hands pointing to the sky. That was as it should be. The concern wasn't what was inside the display case, but rather what should have been there but now wasn't. Every single finger on the two hands should have been adorned with a ring, but all fingers were bare.

The Ten Rings of Power were gone.

--

Kihara Gensei stepped over the body of one of the HYDRA forces that had accompanied him off of the rig and served as his guard. He, like all the others, had been killed by something of Kihara's creation, a quick acting aerosol drug that uncontrollably sped up the heart rate of anyone who breathed it in, inevitably leading to a fatal heart attack. The guards had served their purpose, but they were no longer of any use to him. He had reached the conclusion that HYDRA itself was no longer of use to him, and it was time for him to move on to bigger and better things. The experiments he'd conducted there had been enlightening, but he ever thirsted to do more, to think bigger, to constantly test the very limits of science.

Losing all those wonderful test subjects back at the base was regrettable, but that was merely a temporary setback. Subjects were replaceable, especially ones as pedestrian as those.

He walked with a hunch as always, but he felt younger than he had in years. Being free of the obligations of HYDRA was strangely liberating, and as he walked through the back alleys of Hong Kong, he found himself looking forward to the future.

Two men suddenly came running down the opposite side of the alley, moving with considerable haste. One was a tall man, well kept and likely considered handsome by most, though Kihara couldn't care less about such meaningless things. The other was odd looking, and wore large amounts of eye shadow. They bumped shoulders, and Kihara had to catch himself to avoid falling down.

"Watch it, old man," the one with the eye shadow grumbled. The two men hurried on their way, and Kihara stopped and turned to watch them. He was an inquisitive man by his very nature, and these two had piqued his curiosity.

The two men stopped when they reached the first of the several dead HYDRA agents Kihara had left behind. Despite their apparent rush, something like this was bound to draw their attention. They looked around at their surroundings, and upon finding no sign of anyone else, turned back around to look at Kihara. They'd dismissed him as just a feeble old man before, but they were clearly rethinking that initial assessment,

"Did you see who killed all these men?" the tall one asked. Kihara smiled and nodded his head.

"That would be me," he said.

"You?" the one with the eye shadow said, obviously skeptical. "Do you really expect me to believe that one old man killed five heavily armed soldiers?"

"I don't expect you to believe anything," Kihara said. "You asked a question, and I merely gave you the answer. I know how much I hate questions that I don't have the answer to."

"How did you kill them?" This was the tall one again.

"I made their hearts explode," he said placidly. He reached into his pocket and showed them the now empty container that had once held the deadly drug. "The fruits of one of my recent experiments. Not my best effort, admittedly, but useful enough."

He could tell they believed him now, and were regarding him with great interest. Some might have brushed him off as just a senile old man, but these two seemed to know better. Perhaps they recognized a fellow killer when they saw one. He knew he sensed it in them.

"That's very interesting," the man wearing the eye shadow said. "Very interesting indeed. And you created this drug yourself, you say?"

"Indeed. It was far from my most interesting result, but it does have its uses."

The two men conferred with each other privately for a moment, after which they approached Kihara more closely.

"I think we could make good use of a man of your talents," the man with the eye shadow said. "My name is Kaecilius."

"Kihara Gensei," he said, smiling politely before turning to the other man.

"I'm Gene Khan," the tall man said by way of introduction. Kihara took notice of the many rings on his fingers. He wore one on each finger of both hands. While he had no explanation, his gut instinct told him that this was a man of immense power, and those rings were part of it somehow. "But if you prefer, you can also call me The Mandarin."

 

[Mayor Haggar]

"Done," Misaka said, stepping back from the workbench and nodding at Toomes. "All of these should be ready for shipment now."

"Good to hear it," Toomes said. "Our buyers can't get enough, and it's all thanks to you. The chitauri tech is good, but the improvements you make to it are what really puts this stuff over the top."

Mikoto didn't know what to say to that. She had no fondness for Toomes or his crew, and knowing that there were people out there likely using these weapons for evil purposes didn't make her feel great. But then again, didn't Stark Industries do the same thing? These buyers might very well need these weapons to defend themselves, especially if The Avengers got involved. She'd seen firsthand how heavy-handed and confrontational the so-called 'good guys' were. "I'll be back next week," she said eventually, choosing not to respond to his comment. "Same deal as always."

"Actually, I was hoping you might be willing to do something a little extra," Toomes said before she could walk away.

"More tech work?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "I thought I just finished with the current shipment."

"Yeah, you did," Toomes said, nodding. "That's the thing. See, I wasn't kidding about how popular our goods are. We're in high demand all around the world. We run out of supply before we can even meet our demand."

"Isn't that a good thing?" The amount of money she'd made and continued to make off of this little partnership would attest to that. She and Misaki should be well stocked for whatever unforeseen issues might arise.

"Ordinarily, yes, it would be. But we've got a very interested potential buyer right now over in Eastern Europe, and I'm talking huge, huge business. Massive shipment, a small fortune for all of us. You get the picture."

"I get it, sure," she said. "But how are you going to ship something that you don't have? Seems like you'd need months to get ready for something that size, and even then I'm not sure it would be enough. It's not like we have an unlimited supply of chitauri tech to work with."

"Like you said, we aren't ready for that kind of shipment," Toomes said. "We need more weapons, powerful weapons, and we need them in a hurry. We need more tech. And I know where we can get it, but it's not something my team or I can handle. That's where I was hoping you'd come in."

"I'm listening," Mikoto said, folding her arms. "Where can we get more?"

"From Tony Stark," Toomes said, grinning.

She looked at him with renewed interest now. "Stark?" Her brain was working overtime, and she connected the dots before he needed to do so for her. "The salvage you and your crew were supposed to do after the battle? The one that Stark and his team stole away?"

"That's the one," he confirmed. "Should've been ours to begin with, and now it can be. They've got a plane that's gonna be taking everything they've salvaged over the past few months out to California, so Stark can look it over from the comfort of his nice little mansion in Malibu."

"And you know when it's leaving." It wasn't a question.

"One week from today, according to my very well-placed source. We don't have the manpower or the combat ability to do anything about it, but I'm betting you could handle it just fine."

"I probably could," she said, rolling her tongue around in her mouth as she considered the logistics. The actual act of stopping the plane and getting on board wouldn't be difficult at all with her abilities, but it was doing so without bringing the attention of Stark, the Avengers and the government in general down on her that might be tricky. "It'll take some planning though."

"Well, you've got a week. Let us know if there's anything we can do to help."

--

"I'm so bored!"

"Poor you," Mikoto said, not looking up from the sheet of paper she was scribbling on. "Maybe you'd like to look over the plan for this hijacking?"

"Tch," Shokuhou spat. "No thank you."

"Then I guess you can just suffer in boredom," Misaka drawled. While they had a better relationship than she ever would have thought they'd have back when they were in Academy City, there were still times that the former Queen of Tokiwadai really got on her nerves. Generally it was times like this past week, where she was acting like a spoiled brat while Misaka busied herself in preparing for her planned hijacking. Mikoto had more important things to worry about than the blonde's temper tantrums.

The Stark plane was set to make its journey from New York to California tomorrow, but little did they know the flight wasn't going to go as planned. The takeoff would go off without a hitch, but as soon as they were far enough away so as to no longer be visible within the city, Mikoto would make her move.

Toomes had a whole crew ready to assist with the back half of the plan, but the hijacking itself would be left solely to her. There was just no other logical way to proceed. None of Toomes' people would be of any use to her up in the air. Shokuhou could have been, but the logistics of getting her onboard weren't practical when factored in with all the other things Mikoto needed to worry about. Using her ability to take control of the minds of the plane's crew and filling them with a forced sense of calm could have been useful, but Misaka was confident in her own plan to make sure the crew didn't get in her way.

"Seriously, there is NOTHING to do!" Misaki whined from the couch.

"Why don't you read or something?" Mikoto said, glaring down at the paper in front of her.

"Read what, exactly? I've exhausted every book and magazine in this apartment, and there's nothing online but garbage fan fiction. I'm so bored I've even read your entire porn stash!"

Misaka flushed at that, her concentration now broken. When Shokuhou wanted to tease her about something, her collection of borderline pornographic manga was a common target. But she wasn't about to take this lying down, especially since Misaki had just revealed something new, something she could use to fire back at her. "So you read it all, huh?" she said, turning her chair away from the table so she could look at her roommate's face. "Did you enjoy them, queen? Having some nice alone time while I've been getting ready for my hijacking, huh?"

The normally unshakable Shokuhou actually looked embarrassed for a change, and at a loss for a good comeback. Mikoto allowed herself to grin. Finally, she'd gotten one over on the queen!

Their verbal repartee was interrupted by the ringing of Misaka's cell phone, which she'd left over near the couch. She stood up to answer it, but Shokuhou was closer, and she grabbed it and answered it before Misaka could.

"This is the phone of Mikoto Misaka, rude boor, inconsiderate roommate and deranged pervert. May I take a message?"

"Give me that!" Mikoto snarled, snatching her phone out of the blonde's hand. "This is Mikoto," she said into the phone.

"What the hell was that?" Toomes asked. "You got a little sister or something?"

"No, that was just my childish blonde roommate. You've met her before. You and your men."

"Right, the blonde," he muttered. "How could I forget?"

"You okay, Toomes?" she asked. "You sound preoccupied. Not having second thoughts about the plan, are you?"

"No," he said right away. "I've seen a little bit of what you can do. I trust you to get the plane where it needs to be, and my boys will take it from there."

"So what's the problem then? You've never called me without a good reason."

"Some of my guys got attacked tonight by some thugs," he explained. "The local mafia boss is trying to get his hands on our chitauri tech. I just thought you should know, in case they come for you next."

"I'm not worried about some mafia boss," she said matter-of-factly. And she wasn't; she had no reason to be. The mafia and their guns posed no threat to her. But there was another concern. "But if they're on your trail and they know you have the chitauri stuff, they might get in the way and complicate our plan." Additional complications were not what Mikoto needed. She had enough on her plate as it was.

"I had the same thought," Toomes said. "We can't afford to delay though. That plane's taking off tomorrow, whether we're ready or not. And it'll be a lot harder to get our hands on Stark's haul if it makes it to California."

"Not to worry," Shokuhou said loudly. "I'll handle this."

Misaka jumped back in surprise and reflexively dropped her phone, only now realizing that Misaki had stood very close behind her, close enough to hear both sides of her conversation. How bored was she? "I thought you had no interest in helping me."

"I have no interest in helping you hijack a plane so you can sell weapons," Misaki clarified. "But playing with a nosy mafia boss? That sounds like fun, and I desperately need some fun. Besides, I know you're a bit too busy with…other things."

Taken on its face, one would assume she was talking about Mikoto's plane hijacking preparations. But Shokuhou winked at her and inclined her head in the direction of the box in the corner where Misaka stored her manga collection. Even at a time like this, the blonde couldn't resist making her lewd insinuations.

Mikoto was slightly hesitant about letting her companion do this on her own. It wasn't out of any real fear for her. While she didn't have any actual fighting skills of her own to speak of, her Mental Out was all the defense she would need for anything the mafia should be able to throw at her. Her concern was more about Misaki being too obvious and doing something that might draw attention on them. But saying that out loud would probably be hypocritical since Misaka was going to hijack a plan tomorrow. She would do her best to do so without getting caught or identified, but you still couldn't get much more flashy or attention-grabbing than hijacking a plane full of Tony Stark's stuff.

"Fine," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "Just…I don't know, be careful? Don't get caught?"

"The same to you, Misaka," she said, striking a pose and sticking her tongue out. "This place is tedious enough as it is. Without you around to amuse me, I might very well die of boredom."

"Yeah, yeah," Mikoto said, reaching down to pick her phone up again. Unsurprisingly, Toomes had disconnected. "See you tomorrow."

--

Shokuhou still hadn't returned the next morning, and Misaka hadn't seen or heard from her by the time she needed to leave. It was odd that she hadn't come back, but Mikoto still wasn't really worried. Shokuhou could handle herself, and she had a plane to steal. Mikoto put her fellow former Tokiwadai Middle School student out of her mind and focused on the task at hand.

Her phone beeped with an alert, and she swiped up and read the message from Toomes.

Everything's set. Get ready.

There was no need for that. I'm ready. Just make sure your guys are where they need to be when I land this thing.

Once she was sure the plane was safely out of range of the city and there would be no civilians around to see what was about to happen, Mikoto activated her attempt to recreate the Anti-Art Attachment, though that name didn't really apply to her creation since she'd been unable to replicate the Anti-Art aspects of the original. It would still suit her just fine in most instances though, and that included transportation. Its flight mode was what she needed right now.

She accelerated through the air, easily reaching the plane since the pilot had no idea he was being tailed and was treating the flight as business as usual. The plan didn't call for her to board it though. This was not a traditional hijacking of a plane, and she was not a typical hijacker.

Instead of entering the plane, she flew underneath it and hacked into the sensors. With her electric powers, it was incredibly simple to take over their system. Anyone who checked on radar would see the plane continuing along on its normal route no matter how far it was actually about to veer off course.

With that done, she tapped in and ensured no one on the plane could use their phones. No phones, and no electric signals of any kind other than those that were used to operate the plane itself and relay the information on altitude, GPS, etc.

The next phase was one of the trickiest of all, not because it was a test of the strength of her esper ability, but because it required a bit more finesse and care if she wanted to do it without maiming or killing those on board the plane. These people might have been associated with Tony Stark and The Avengers, a group that Misaka considered an enemy, but that didn't mean she wanted to kill them. So she took care not to hurt them as she used her electromagnetism to trap them all in one fell swoop. Metal wires bound their hands and feet, and slabs of metal covered their eyes to blind them. It would have been easier if she hadn't cared about hurting them, but she was no murderer. She was confident she'd carried this out just as she'd intended it, so while those on board were surely panicking right now, they were in no actual danger. They would naturally think they were, especially the pilot since he was no longer in control of the plane, but the plane would land safely even without a pilot. It just wouldn't be landing anywhere near where it was supposed to.

The sensors were manipulated so no one outside of the plane was aware anything was amiss, and those inside the plane were powerless to do anything to stop it, all that was left for Misaka to do was guide the plane where it needed to go, to where Toomes' men were waiting.

This was simpler than one might think it would be if they weren't familiar with her ability. Her magnetism really did have so many uses, both large and small. She was able to easily control the plane, keep it on the set path she and Toomes had mapped out and steer it where it needed to go, all without ever setting foot inside the plane itself. It was all nice and easy, at least for her. Those onboard the plane were surely freaking out, but she'd done what she could to make sure they weren't actually going to get hurt.

She and the plane continued on their way without incident, and soon enough they approached the isolated clearing in Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia, where Toomes had agreed to have his crew meet her. Mikoto was well prepared for it and had begun slowly lowering the plane to make sure the landing was as smooth as she could possibly make it. And despite the actual pilot of the plane being bound and unable to do anything, Misaka felt the landing went just as smoothly as the rest of the flight. Thanks to her magnetism the plane and its parts moved exactly how she wanted them to, and it landed in the clearing as gently as it would have if the pilot had landed it on Tony Stark's private runway in California as had been the plan.

Mikoto took out her phone and typed out a message for Toomes. Everything went as planned. I landed the plane in the clearing.

Roger that. The boys are ready.

As soon as Toomes' reply came, the assortment of moving vans, 18 wheelers and other nondescript vehicles moved in so they could unload the cargo. Misaka opened the door and entered the plane for the first time.

The crew were trapped in their seats as planned, hands and feet bound together with wire and metal slabs covering their eyes. One or two were thrashing around and trying to escape their bindings, but most were still. Likely these were the smarter ones, who had either stopped struggling long ago and did their best to keep a level head, or had realized that the plane had landed on solid ground and they at least didn't need to worry about an imminent crash.

A few of the crew had some minor cuts, but Misaka was confident those weren't from her. The likeliest explanation was they struggled and fought to free themselves, and had thus cut their skin on the wires. None of the cuts looked deep and there was no major blood loss, so none of the crew appeared to be in need of immediate medical attention.

Obviously there were still the few stubborn crewmen who continued to struggle, but even those who weren't resisting still showed some signs of movement, whether it be carefully shifting their bodies in place or taking shaky breaths. There was one who wasn't moving at all though, and who hadn't moved or reacted in any way even as her footsteps got closer and closer. Once she got closer, she realized that the heavyset man wasn't even breathing, let alone moving. She checked his pulse and got nothing.

He was dead. But how? She looked closer, checking for any signs of cuts, thinking perhaps she might have made a mistake and cut one of his arteries with the wires or something, but there was nothing. He didn't have a single scrape on him, and had lost no blood. His shirt was drenched in sweat though, and that's what caught her attention. Sweating in such a stressful situation was common, of course, and most of the other crewmen had also sweat to some degree. But the dead man had sweat so much that it soaked his clothing completely. Misaka was no doctor, but she had a pretty good idea what had happened, what had killed him. The panic had most likely overwhelmed him, sent him into shock, and his heart had given out on him.

Should she feel responsible for his death? Some would undoubtedly say so, but Misaka didn't feel much guilt. She'd done all she reasonably could not to hurt any of the crewmen, despite them working for a man and a group that she considered her enemy. And she hadn't failed in that; it was his own body that killed him. He'd died of fright, rather than some kind of error on her part. Unfortunate for him, but she felt she'd done what she could to keep this hijacking as bloodless as possible.

There was no time for her to dwell on the dead man anyway. They had a plane full of chitauri tech to unload, and despite knowing she'd executed her plan flawlessly and not given advanced notice that something was amiss to any outside parties, it was still only a matter of time before the authorities showed up. She could fight them off if she really had to, but that wasn't the point. They needed to be in and out before anyone knew what had happened.

The crew worked swiftly, but their jobs were made infinitely easier with Misaka and her magnetism there to help. She was able to quickly transport the gear from the plane over to the various vehicles that were going to haul it back to New York. It would have taken the crew much longer without her there, but they got everything they could fit into the vehicles transported and secured before there was any hint of someone arriving on the scene. The crew packed up and left as quickly as they'd swooped in, hauling their stolen bounty back to New York with them. Though one could argue that the 'stolen' goods should have been theirs in the first place, and would have been if Tony Stark hadn't stolen their cleanup job right out from under them after the contracts had already been signed.

Misaka didn't leave right away though. She wasn't going to go back with them anyway; they were all kind of taking their own routes back, going in different directions and crossing different bridges to ultimately get back to the same destination, since traveling in unison as a convoy would have aroused too much suspicion. She'd brought her own method of transportation with her, but there was something she'd decided to do before she left the scene.

She pulled one of the crewmen's phones into her hand and dialed 911 so the crewmen (all but the one who had died of fright, at least) could be picked up. She bore no ill will towards the people in particular, and there was no need for them to be detained any longer now that she'd gotten what she needed. The last thing she did, once she was out of sight, was use her magnetism to remove the slabs of metal blinders she'd placed over their eyes. The wires would be easy enough for a rescue crew to cut through, but the blinders might have been tricky.

That small act of kindness done, Mikoto activated the Attachment once again so she could be sure she was gone before the first responders arrived.
--

After reentering Manhattan via the Attachment in its motorcycle form, Misaka's first stop was not the apartment she shared with Shokuhou. While she was curious to see if her roommate had returned yet, she wanted to check on today's spoils first. So she headed not to her own apartment, but to Toomes' workshop.

It had been an eventful operation with one unintended casualty, but in the end she had succeeded. Now it was time to examine the contents of the loot. Hopefully Stark's team had found plenty of useful tech that would fetch a good price. Maybe she'd even be able to repurpose some of it for her own personal use.

Toomes and his men were already well into their appraisal, but it wasn't their work that caught her attention. A familiar figure was standing just outside, apart from everyone else. Well, with one exception, an exception that was far less familiar.

"Hello, Misaka." Shokuhou struck a pose. "Welcome back. Based on what I saw on the news, it seems like you've had quite the day."

"Uh, yeah," she muttered. Her own adventure wasn't really what she was concerned with right now. "Shokuhou, who is that with you?"

A bald man stood beside the blonde, towering over her. He was large in both height and weight, but his massive body was clad in an immaculate white suit. Whoever this man was, he was either an important business man or he carried himself as one.

"I'm Wilson Fisk," the man said in a gruff voice. "The Kingpin of crime here in New York."

"He's also the naughty little boy who came after your friends," Misaki added.

"Friends? What friends?" Mikoto asked. The only person in all of New York, in all of this alternate world they'd been sent to that she might call a friend was the blonde she was talking to.

"You know, Toomes' crew. The little problem I went out to solve?"

Mikoto quickly returned her attention to this Wilson Fisk, or Kingpin, or whatever he wanted to call himself. "You're the one who sent goons after Toomes' men? You're after our chitauri tech?" she asked warily, prepared to launch off a quick burst of electricity if necessary.

"That was me, yes," the Kingpin said calmly. "Sorry about that. It won't happen again."

"Oh yeah? Why should I trust that you're telling the truth?"

"Everything that I have is now yours," he said. "All of my resources, of which there are many, are at your disposal. That includes all of my safe houses. Anything you want, anything you need, you can take, no questions asked." And then he cocked his hip in an absurd way, posed with two fat fingers framing his eyes and stuck his tongue out at her.

"Of course," she muttered, shaking her head. She looked over at Misaki, who was looking very pleased. "I should have known."

Shokuhou giggled. "I told you I'd take care of it, didn't I? And unlike you, I didn't make the news."

"I know you keep saying you're bored, but don't you think you could find a healthier hobby than luring fat old men around? Make fun of me for my manga all you want, but you'd be better off sticking to that instead of doing this kind of thing at your age.

"V-very funny, Misaka!" Shokuhou stammered. "You're being very mean!"

"Sorry," Mikoto said, not sorry at all and not trying to hide that fact. "But making him make that expression is just, just weird."

"I was just having a little fun!" Misaki said, pouting. "He brought this all on himself, you know! It was he and his men that attacked your buddy Toomes!"

"He's not my buddy," Mikoto interrupted. "We have a business arrangement, that's it."

"The POINT," Shokuhou said loudly, "is that Wilson here started all of this. And I not only ended it, but I co-opted his entire organization for our own use. His funds? Ours. His network of informants? Ours. We can even move into one of his safe houses if we want to. You shouldn't be poking fun at me, Misaka. You should be congratulating me for being productive!"

What a strange life they were leading. Selling weapons to all sorts of black market buyers? Having an apparently vast criminal organization at their beck and call? Hijacking planes? But none of it bothered Misaka all that much. That someone had died on the plane was unfortunate, but it didn't fill her with guilt. It hadn't been her fault that he died anyway; he'd died of a heart attack. She'd done what she could to ensure the physical safety of every person aboard that plane, though they would almost certainly not have done the same for her if their roles were reversed. She and Misaki were stranded her, unable to fully trust anyone. If they wanted to survive, if they hoped to find a way home some day, they couldn't afford to play nice with anyone who might try to stop them.

"Congratulations, Shokuhou," she said. "Good work. I think Mr. Fisk and his network will be a big help."

--

Steve Rogers took a seat across from Natasha. Barton was also there, as were a few others. Steve was surprisingly looking forward to this meeting. Nick Fury wasn't exactly his favorite person; the man was far too secretive for his liking. But a chat with the Director of SHIELD seemed like a little slice of heaven compared to the tedious busywork he'd been doing since their ill-fated operation in Japan.

Fury didn't make them wait long. He walked into the room right behind Maria Hill, and he got straight to the point.

"We've finished analyzing all the files you retrieved from Gensei Kihara's computers," he said. Steve sat up straighter in his seat. That mission had been one he'd sooner forget, but if they'd learned something useful from the recovered files, maybe it wouldn't have been a total loss.

"I'm guessing you found something big there, if you called all of us in here to talk about it," Barton said. "Which is strange, since this Kihara guy left it right there for us to find."

"Based on our information, Kihara's always been a strange one, hard to figure out," Fury said. "We don't know where he is or why he might have left this all for us to find. Maybe he's deserted HYDRA, or maybe he's just crazy. Either way, that's not what we're here to talk about."

"The files," Natasha said. "What'd you find?"

Fury looked even more serious and pissed off than usual, which worried Steve. "HYDRA is still alive."

"I thought we already knew that," Barton said, echoing exactly what Steve was thinking. "It was their base we broke into in the first place."

"That was the Japanese branch," Fury explained. "I'm talking about their big brother, the original. The one our very own Captain Rogers fought against back in World War II."

Steve's jaw tightened. It was bad enough just knowing that some minor offshoots of the group were still around, but the original HYDRA, his old enemies? "How?" he asked. "How did they survive all this time without you guys noticing?"

"Because they've been in hiding," Fury said. "And they've gotten very good at hiding in plain sight."

"Who's helping them?" Barton asked. "They've got to have allies, right? Allies beyond the smaller branches, I mean."

"We aren't sure," Hill said. "Either Kihara concealed some of the more sensitive information from us, or they didn't share everything with him."

"My money's on the latter," Fury said. "Like I said, they've hidden their tracks extremely well. I doubt there are many people even within the real HYDRA who know how deep their tentacles run, never mind members of smaller affiliates like the Japanese branch. But there was enough there for us to piece together that HYDRA agents have infiltrated SHIELD, and likely even higher up the food chain."

"The government," was what Natasha said. She looked almost embarrassed, and Steve wondered why. Maybe she felt that as a former spy herself, she should've caught onto this before now. Fury said nothing, but the look on his face said it all.

Steve needed to hear no more. He stood from his seat, cracked his knuckles and looked at Fury seriously. "When do we make our move?"

"Move? And what move is that, Captain Rogers? What're we supposed to do?" Fury wanted to know.

What was he even talking about? Wasn't it obvious? "You just told me HYDRA has double agents within SHIELD, and likely the government too. We need to strike. We need to drag them out into the open and take them out, and we need to take them out now, before they can do whatever it is they want to do. We can't let a situation like this fester."

It was not Fury, but Maria Hill who addressed Steve's point first. "If we knew how to tell our enemies from our friends, we'd be happy to do that. But what do we do when we don't know how deep the conspiracy runs, or who is part of it?"

Fury nodded in agreement with his agent's words and then expanded upon them. "The eight people in this room are the only eight people in all of SHIELD that I can say aren't part of HYDRA with absolute certainty. Outside this room, who knows who might be with us and who might be against us? We can't fight an enemy we can't see, and if we give them any hint that we know of their existence, it'll be that much harder for us to catch them. And that's assuming Kihara isn't just playing us, and HYDRA wanted us to have this information for whatever reason."

"So the plan is to do nothing?" Steve asked, frustrated. He did understand the logic behind what Hill and Fury were saying. They didn't know who they could trust, and they couldn't afford to be sloppy about this and give HYDRA any advance warning. He understood it, but that didn't mean he had to like it. The idea of HYDRA being out there, having its claws in SHIELD and even in the United States government itself, and doing nothing about it made Steve's blood boil.

"The plan is to reveal nothing, not give them any hint that we know anything, keep our eyes open for any slight mistake they might make, and be ready to act once we find out any concrete information," Hill recited. "But until then, discretion is key." She looked straight at Steve as she said this, and he honestly couldn't blame her. Subtlety and covert sneaking around had never been his strong suits.

"I understand," he said, nodding. He'd play his cards close to his chest right now, but the moment they dug HYDRA out of whatever nest it had burrowed into, he would stop at nothing to cut the head off of the snake once and for all. The others all voiced their own agreement, and Fury looked satisfied.

"I'm glad to hear we're all on the same page," Fury said. "With that out of the way, there's one other matter we have to discuss. I'm sure I don't need to tell any of you about it. It's been all over the news."

"Of course," Barton said. "Somebody hijacked Tony's plane. Pretty ballsy move if you ask me."

"And also a dangerous one," Steve added. "Just ask the dead crewman. Or ask his next of kin, I guess."

"What I want to know is how the hell they pulled it off," Natasha said.

Steve was very curious about that too. All the crewmen insisted that no one else had boarded the plane before the hijacking, and all swore that it had been a sudden thing. One moment everything was normal, and the next their limbs were bound with wires and their vision was obstructed. Even the pilot said the same, and he'd been bound in his chair just like all the rest when the rescue team had arrived. But with an incapacitated pilot and flight crew who were bound in their seats, and no one else even being onboard the plane, how did the plane make such a smooth landing? There were so many things about this whole situation that just didn't make any sense.

"We can't say for certain," Hill said. "So much of it defies description. But there is one interesting clue. There were lightning burns all over the plane, both inside and outside."

"SHIELD knows of two people that we can assume are capable of doing such a thing naturally," Fury said. "The first is Thor, and not only would he have no reason to attack Tony's plane, he's still in Asgard. But the second one has been staying right here in New York for months, and we aren't sure where her loyalties lie."

It was obvious who Fury was referring to, but could it really be true? Steve caught a knowing look from Romanoff and a narrowing of the eyes from Barton, but he ignored both of them. He didn't want to doubt Mikoto Misaka. She'd shown him something when she jumped in to help them fight Loki and his army. That was a courageous act, the sort of act that made someone a hero. He'd been convinced that she was a good person. that she was a hero, even if she had no love for SHIELD (and it wasn't like Clint or Natasha had given her and her friend a good first impression of them.)

But if HYDRA was really still alive, and if they'd infiltrated SHIELD and the government, could he really trust them? In order for HYDRA to get their agents into the positions of power they now apparently held, they would have had to put on a good act. They would have to be able to fool people into trusting them, into thinking they were good people, honest people, heroic people. Planting a double agent in New York and having them jump into the fray against Loki's army would be a perfect way to get a mole into The Avengers itself. With Misaka's apparent power, she'd fit right into the group. Maybe that was why she'd been there in the first place. If Clint and Natasha hadn't been so confrontational towards her and her friend, maybe they'd both be Avengers right now, and reporting everything the group did back to HYDRA.

He didn't want to believe it, but it made a certain amount of sense, and Fury was right that the list of people capable of pulling something like this off was a very, very short one. It might very well be a list of one.

Steve wanted to think the best of Misaka, but if co-workers within SHIELD were capable of blending in and being part of HYDRA, why not two random, mysterious and extremely powerful middle school girls?

This was why Steve hated subterfuge. Show him an enemy and let him go fight them. Having to constantly look over his shoulder and wonder if the person supposedly watching his back might be about to stick a knife in it drove him crazy. He hated the paranoia of it all, but with HYDRA lurking in the shadows, paranoia was a necessity.

Steve was a soldier, not a spy. But he was a soldier with enemies he couldn't see, and no one he could trust to have his back.

--

"Mr. Stark, Mr. Stark, can I have a word?"

Tony's initial reaction when the woman accosted him on his way out of the gala was to politely turn the pretty brunette down. He was trying to make a serious attempt at monogamy with Pepper, after all. But then he saw the expensive-looking voice recorder in her hand. A reporter, then.

"Don't really have time for an interview right now, sorry," he said, moving to brush past her. But then she asked something that stopped him in his tracks.

"Do you have time to comment on the recent hijacking of one of your planes, and the member of your crew that died?"

It wasn't the question itself that stopped him and made him respond. He'd had plenty of reporters try to ask him about the hijacking already. But it was one word, one specific word she'd used that caused him to turn around.

"Died?" he said. "Let's get one thing straight. He didn't just up and die out of nowhere. He was murdered."

"Wasn't it officially ruled a heart attack?"

"And did he bind his own hands and feet and choose to put metal over his eyes so he couldn't see anything?" Tony snapped. "Whoever did this might not have put a bullet in him or physically killed him, but his blood is still on their hands." He could feel the heat, the rage coming over him. He didn't know much the guy who'd died; didn't even know his name before the report of his death came in. But he knew that he didn't deserve to die.

"Do you have any leads on who was responsible?" she asked. He could see the eagerness on her face. She knew she was getting front page material from him, especially since he'd refused to say anything to the media about the incident so far. Whether she'd meant to or not, she'd pushed his buttons in just the right way to get a rise, and thus a quote that would make a fantastic headline, out of him.

"None yet," he admitted. "Nothing concrete at least. But I won't rest until I find them. Whether it's one lone psycho, a criminal ring or whatever, I'll find them. I don't care how long we have to search or how much money I have to spend; money is no object here. If you come after me, if you steal from me, if you hurt and kill my people, you've got an enemy for life."

"What message would you send to the culprit, whoever it might be?" she asked. She glanced down and double checked the recorder, making absolutely certain that it was working as intended. Tony didn't recognize the woman, but she was a seasoned enough reporter that she knew a headline opportunity when she saw one. Well, he would give it to her. Let them print this on the front page of every paper, play it on every TV show and post it on every website in the world. Hopefully whoever did this would hear every single word.

"Don't bother running, and don't bother hiding," he said. "If you go underground, I'll dig you out. If you try to hide in plain sight, I'll use my technology to pick you out of the largest crowd in the world. If you try to isolate yourself in the middle of nowhere, I'll get in one of my suits and fly to every corner of the world until I find the one you're in. Running and hiding will only delay the inevitable. The smartest thing for you to do would be to offer yourself up and accept your fate. We can do this the easy way or we can do it the hard way. But no matter what, I'm going to make sure you answer for what you did."

Having said all he needed to say, Tony walked away from the woman and towards the car Happy had waiting for him. He saw the woman getting on her phone before he had even turned the corner. No doubt she was calling the editor of whatever paper, network or website she worked for to tell them to get ready for a headline-grabbing story. Or if she was a freelancer, she'd be making the first of many calls to shop her story around to the highest bidder. That might be the best case scenario for her; she'd make a killing with this story.

"Ready to go, boss?" Happy said once Tony opened the door and climbed into the waiting car.

"Ready, Happy," he said. "I've got work to do."

Like catching the hijacker/murderer who'd stolen his stuff. Hopefully he could do so before they managed to do whatever they wanted to do with the cargo they'd stolen. If they wanted to use the chitauri tech for their own purposes, that would be bad. If they were going to sell it on the black market and distribute it to bad guys all around the world, then that was arguably even worse. Stark Industries had been arming bad guys for far too long. He was doing his best to change the direction of the company and make up for the sins of their past, but letting that chitauri tech get into the wrong hands might be even worse.

Time was short. He needed to move fast.