Disclaimer - I don't own Marvel/Disney IP. I am just a humble keyboard warrior. Also, the Chaos Gacha was made by Bronz here. I am just dipping my toe in the water, so to speak.
Triskelion
–Nick Fury–
Stomping through his office floor, he glared at anyone foolish/brazen enough to make eye contact, the recent briefing doing wonders for his mood as he regretted installing these automatic doors as he no longer had something to conveniently slam. They were much safer and thus, too heavy to move by hand, they said.
What he wouldn't give to slam something that wouldn't break upon impact or just be a pain in the ass for him later on. Now inside the safety of his office, he sighed in exhaustion and just dragged his body to his desk. He had far more important things to do than mope around because things didn't go the way he wanted them to.
He was the director of SHIELD, and the world practically made it its job to make sure things never went the way he intended them to. Getting through the six step authentication process, he finally opened his computer and waited for the files to download and decrypt, the same files that were combed through SHIELD analysts dozens of times before they were cleared for his devices.
Still, he didn't become Director without a healthy dose of paranoia. As the files cleared up, his heart rate threatened to shoot up once more as four faces were printed on his screen, flashing red.
Bruce Banner. The Hulk, as the Army called him. A green humanoid monster of muscle who did not seem to have an upper limit when it came to his strength. Practically invulnerable to anything that Ross had managed to throw at him, and the maniac had tried everything short of War crime level and more importantly, classified weaponry that he could not just commandeer to throw at his so-called next generation's war weapon.
Rick Jones. A much smaller Hulk, compared to Banner, but still standing at a hulking 8 feet tall, clad in blue scales, and, in his opinion, much more dangerousthan Banner. Sure, Banner was practically the embodiment of strength that made Captain America look like a toddler in terms of strength, but all that strength came at a cost.
Banner was the poster boy of the eggheads at SHIELD, someone who hadn't raised his fists his entire life, a wimpy boy. But the man was frighteningly intelligent, someone without peer in certain fields. Yet, all that brain power vanished when he turned into the Hulk, becoming a mindless monster of pure strength.
Dangerous? Sure, but it also made him predictable. In his long life, he'd met many people who were vastly stronger than he was at the time, and yet, it was only their predictability, their minds that had been their downfall. The Hulk could be easily manoeuvred around.
Rick Jones, on the other hand? Seemingly in exchange for a fixed strength ceiling, Rick Jones had retained his mind, his ability to think, to strategise. In fact, he had automatically assumed that Rick had received a substantial boost to his intelligence due to the accident. Even if vastly reduced when compared to Banner, if someone of Rick's intellect managed to effectively utilise the strength he had, it would be a disaster in urban population centers.
He was immensely relieved of the fact that both Banner and Jones were MIA, after that disaster in Culver University, where they saw the birth of the strongest Enhanced people after her.
Sighing, he closed their windows. Yes, they were dangerous, but they were being actively tracked by SHIELD, and more importantly, their traces were being deleted to make it harder for Ross to track them down. The fool would only kill his own men by attacking them without a concrete strategy.
He was much more accepting of the decisions Melinda May had taken in the brief window of time where she was the highest authority on that matter, before higher Level agents took over, before he ultimately took over it.
Ofcourse, her suggestions of de-escalation, and strategic retreat to gather more data slid off Ross's head, as the man was adamant on tracking them down to bring them to heel. He would have even cracked a grin at the way Agent May had turned down Ross' demand for help from SHIELD in a rather satisfying manner, if not for the next two pictures bringing with them an even bigger headache.
Atleast when it came to the two Hulk heads, he had names, history, contacts, DNA, and more. Something about knowing so much about them reduced their threat rating, but that was not the case with these two.
The first one was of a man in his mid twenties, according to the analysts, lean, pale, and normal looking. Nothing about the man's appearance could suggest his abilities. The ability to instantly generate a swamp around him to sink and subdue anyone in that swamp was a decent ability.
He could see the benefits of that in the field. But that alone was not enough for the man to be a pain in the ass. No, that came with his ability to do the impossible. An ability to open a hole in reality, a portal leading somewhere. A massive security risk. A nightmare basically for operational security, for any VVIP they had to constantly look out for.
The only silver lining he could barely see here was the fact that the use of some sort of key to open the door, and also the potential limitation of a door being necessary to open that portal. All of that remained unconfirmed because of a lack of data but he hoped that to be the case. It would mean there were at least some limitations to this nightmaric ability.
Then, there was her, the real danger of these two. While Subject A was a nightmare to catch due to his ability to simply jump into a hole in reality and disappear from the surface of the earth, Subject B was capable of damage in a more conventional way. She has displayed a wide array of dangerous abilities and a deference to Subject A that has the analysts sitting below throw up all sorts of theories as to why that may be.
Super strength. Super speed. High durability. Her ability to change her body's shape, size, and even color on will. Her ability to turn her hands into claws sharp to rend steel with ease.
A shapeshifting supersoldier with virtually no way of identifying her. Another threat that would have anyone remotely in power running screaming for the hills, as there would simply be no way of telling who was being impersonated. Sure, long term, she could be identified but even a short amount of time could be enough to deal devastating damage should she assume the right identity and say the right words to the right people.
He looked up as the computer showed him who was entering. He pressed a button on his desk, using his fingerprint(warm) as the ID before the door opened up, allowing Coulson to enter. Sure, it was tedious doing that every time, but once again, he would stop doing it if his paranoia had not saved his life more times than he could count.
"What do you have for me, Coulson," He'd tasked Coulson with personally interviewing the two cops that had been knocked out in NYC as well as going through that sewer they jumped into with all the gizmos the eggheads could carry on short notice. He needed something, anything, to track them down, and if they could somehow pinpoint the activation points of that portal system Subject A had going on, they would score a major win, further increasing their leverage when he inevitably brought that system to DC to secure the politicians' lives.
"Nothing we didn't already know from the bodycam footage. Except the cops conveniently forgot the fact that Subject A was the only reason they were still alive." Coulson noted as he couldn't help but mentally agree.
They had combed through all the footage they could get their hands on. The bodycam footage, footage from the dashcam on their cars, CCTV from an ATM nearby and even a traffic cam that caught the shot of them jumping into the sewers. All of that, along with audio from the bodycam, painted a picture of Subject A and his relationship with Subject B.
"And the series of thefts?" He asked Coulson, since the files for that were not ready for his eyes yet, so Coulson here was supposed to give him the rundown. Last he heard, they had hit yet another gas station, pumped all the gas out of it into their portal and fled the scene, just like the last 2 times they had done so in the past month that they had been active.
Coulson nodded, taking a file out of his coat and handing it to him. As he read through the incident reports, tallying everything, Coulson spoke, "We have a pretty good theory as to what they are doing."
"What? Preparing for the apocalypse?" The list included packed goods, water, gas, clothing, more food, an ATM that Subject B just ripped from the wall, camping equipment, generators, batteries, lights, and more.
"No. They are building a home." Coulson said with surety. He looked up at him with a deadpan, "You mean to tell me that people who have billionaires terrified of leaving their homes, are looting stores for what? Building a love nest?"
"I am not sure of the love part but we are positive that they are doing this to build a house, or to sustain a house."
"They are tearing up stores and hitting gas stations across three states, to build and maintain a house?"
"That is the only thing that fits. They haven't killed anyone. They make sure not to hurt anyone beyond the necessary amount to knock people out. They steal essential goods and then leave. We have cross referenced every single item they have stolen. They are either building a home or enough bombs to demolish multiple blocks."
He sighed. He hated it when bomb making was the least damaging thing certain people could do. They were far more dangerous than just bomb makers.
"Any leads on who they could be?"
"None, sir. We have gone through every database we have access to, and some we don't, but we have nothing. No print matches, no facial hits, nothing. It's as if both of them dropped out of thin air, sir."
"Keep Looking. Also, keep me updated. The Council want these two brought in yesterday, dead or alive."
"I've put Hand in charge of the Hulk affair. You can leave that to her. Ross won't get anything past her." He reassured Coulson, who had grown to have a soft spot for the Hulk case, not because of Banner but because of Rick Jones.
A teenager who was wicked smart and was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, to get caught up in the fallout of that experiment. So far, Ross hasn't been able to declare Jones as a terrorist, but it was only a matter of time before Ross got impatient and took things into his own warmongering hands.
That was where Hand came into play. She would make sure that any actions that the Army took under Ross was actually something the Army would do and not a semi mad, raving obsessive GEneral who had most certainly lost his mind and if he did not cease using taxpayers' money to go after things that would only end in dead soldiers, he would not be a General anymore, Hand shall make sure of that.
___xx__
Meanwhile, in Pocket Beach
–Mike–
Sipping on the Ice Cold water, especially in an area that was always pleasantly tropical, was amazing, "Ah! This is life!"
"No," A voice piped up from the side, as he turned to look at Alcina sitting on a similar beach chair, lounging in the sun, raising her glass of wine that held a red liquid, "This is life, literally."
He grunted at her before slipping his sunglasses back on his eyes, looking straight up at the blue sky. This place did not have a sun, yet it was always sunny outside. The warm breeze that very comfortable, and the sound of waves hitting the shore. All of that was so relaxing and yet…..
He tried to think of more tropical things to ignore the ethical nightmare that was a well fed Alcina. See, when he'd gotten a little desperate and had hit multiple stores in one night, even going so far as to hit gas stations once they found a big enough container they could store the gas in, he had received a Silver Ticket for being infamous enough to become SHIELD's number one Undesirable, he had rolled it and gotten something incredibly useful out of it.
[Vial of Everflowing Blood]
|Uncommon Item|
An ornate red vial that, when turned, keeps pouring out fresh, healthy blood from it endlessly. The blood is O- and does not belong to an existing person but is manifested into existence.
A roll that seemed tailor made for his situation. Not a complete fix, by any means, but according to Alcina herself, she needed blood far more regularly than she needed her food. He still held out hope that she could eat something else, but according to her, the last meal she had was enough for her to last a month at the very least.
It was only a slight relief for his conscience that the one she ate was not just a child abuser but also an unrepentant one whose case had gained traction for him, openly gloating about his crimes.
Alcina, as it turned out, was a master of stealth. She had effortlessly broken into the prison and hauled that man out before he was scheduled for his hearing the next week. He had pointedly asked for her to be completely clean before appearing before him and she was. Also, she was obligated to tell him the truth so he was sure that he had targeted that one man only.
Even for someone who committed such horrific crimes against humanity, it still gave him the ick when he thought of her eating him. Shaking his head, he ignored those nasty thoughts and just enjoyed the stuff they had stolen for the past month. He blatantly ignored the red warning that flashed in his mind about the deadline for her next meal coming up.
In the past month, for his actions of theft, assault, and more, he had received just two Silver tickets. One got him the blood vial, which Alcina guarded with her life, kept in a safe box, with all the cash lying outside on the ground. In here, that was far more important than just cash, they couldn't properly use since it was all probably being tracked.
So, it was mostly used for cooked food whenever they were in a new place. Food trucks were the best for them. Getting an obscene amount of food packed and out of the city, into a door they carried around, was way easier than he thought it would be, especially for Alcina who was practically a shapeshifter.
The second Silver Ticket roll got him an extremely useful ability, one that he immediately switched Swamp out for.
[View Air]
|Uncommon Ability|
Allows you to share your senses with the air around you, allowing you to map the world around you through the wind. The base range is 1km, but it can be improved with training and base stats.
It was really nice, to not have to look over his shoulder anymore. 1 km was not a huge range when he was predominantly in rural areas with most places more spread apart compared to a city but it was enough for him to move about with less fear than before. He was still afraid every time he left this sanctuary of his, but over the course of weeks, he had realised that being the host of the Chaos Gacha meant he had to go out and cause Chaos.
Also, repeated Chaos did not give him any tickets, so he had to go out and find new Chaos, inflict more and more Chaos upon the world to get any meaningful returns on it.
Urgh. It was so infuriating for a professional bedrotter. Sure, he would always get up in time for uni and work, but other than that? Every bit of his free time was spent bundled up in a comfy blanket, mainly because of a lack of friends.
He would have loved to say that was not the case anymore but looking around, his choice(or lack of) company left a lot to be desired. Gama was the most tolerable, by far, and he was a slightly enhanced Frog who was currently happily swimming in the small ocean? Lake? Around the small island they called home for now.
And what a home it was. Alcina's razor sharp claws and some crude construction later, they had a wooden frame buried into the sand, with a tarp laid on top of the crudely constructed hut. Inside the tarp, was a camping tent, used by him to sleep and also to create a sealed shelter of sorts, allowing him to finally take a peaceful nap after eating a bunch of jerky.
They also had a generator, tons of gas to power that generator, an inverter system for load balancing, and a small TV, along with some entertainment to help him pass the time.
Because that's what he had done for the most part in the past few weeks. Create a bubble of comfort and then just dive headfirst into it, ignoring the outside world, knowing damn well that it was not viable as a long term strategy.
Well, apparently, it only took him four days of being cooped up inside, living on canned food, and roasted fish to muster up the will to finally go out and make some mayhem, create some Chaos to get more tickets.
Time to bust out the old narrow door Alcina had buried under trees and leaves, in the middle of nowhere, inside a small forest of sorts. She was the one who had gone out twice every day to make sure their getaway point was safe, else one day, he might twist the key to the outside world and find the portal leading into a holding facility, which would be the worst, or into a secure warehouse of sorts, which would just be bad.
Shaking his head, he got off the beach chairs/beds they had bought when they emptied one of the stores and went inside the tarp, where a portal shower awaited him. It had a whole enclosure for privacy and everything.
A little touch of civilization living in an isolated pocket dimension with automatically refilling schools of fish in the small ocean. He didn't know what kind of fish they were, but he did know that they were tasty and more than filling enough for his scrawny ass physique.
Ignoring the slowly piling up garbage from the plastic packaging, his mind wandered as to what he could do and where he could go for maximum impact and Chaos.
….
…
..
It would seem that the Gacha was interfering with his thoughts. How else could he explain his sudden urge to do blasphemous things like go out & do stuff?