Alaska
–Alex Warner–
~~but I would walk five hundred miles
And I would walk five hundred miles~~
He was smiling, listening to the tunes, when he felt it. It had been roughly six hours since he dismantled Tony's suit, which was very lightweight and easy to dismantle compared to his usual heavier suits. He had been driving continuously since then, chakra making controlling his bodily functions hilariously easy.
His body, already augmented by chakra, generated very little in terms of waste, was very efficient in terms of digestion, metabolism, and calorific intake needed to function. It was only when his chakra ran out, and his calorific stores ran out, that he had to eat like a horse. So, pee breaks were something he could take on his own terms.
It would be funny to watch pee just freeze before it hit the ground but it might hurt the family jewels that way, and he had no intention of risking that.
He smiled as he hit the brakes slowly, the feeling of being watched, of being hunted, only intensified. Well, since there was no missile currently headed his way, and no arrow aimed at his eyes, he could only conclude that either it was not SHIELD that was hunting him or if it was SHIELD, they were not here for a fight, not a serious one anyway.
The car came to a halt after a while, the rear view mirror showing him a view that had been the same for hours on end. A sea of white, with two tyre trails in it, revealing the tarmac below. Nothing more, nothing else, and yet, he could feel it.
The feeling of being watched intensified as he took the sceptre in one hand, flooded it with chakra, eyes narrowing as he slowly stepped out of the car, looking straight at the road behind him, while leaning on the car.
Tapping the open end of the sceptre on his open palm, he looked straight ahead, almost daring them to come out, whoever they were. A moment later, he was proven wrong when a Quinjet became visible to him, the reflective panels on it shimmering before it was revealed to him, just barely floating 6 feet above the road, not even disturbing the snow on the ground.
No weapons were pointed at him, so he remained in his relaxed position, though primed to bolt at a moment's notice since the only thing of value in the car was in his hands and while he was reasonably certain about being mildly bulletproof, he was not about to test that with whatever high calibre bullets that the Quinjet has here. Not to mention any crazy energy weapons they might have pulled from the prototype bin.
Chakra or not, he would get dusted if one of the Tesseract weapons managed to hit him.
There were no visible parts of the Quinjet, so he could not see the pilot, but he remained in his position, even when the Quinjet turned around, showing the rear ramp. The Quinjet landed as the ramp opened up, revealing a fairly familiar face.
Nick freaking Fury.
Along with an entire STRIKE team, who fanned out, as if the biggest threat present to their boss was not him, holding an Infinity Stone in his hand.
He had to hand it to him. The man had balls of titanium on him, just marching towards him, one eye set in a permanent glare, his entire body screaming hostility towards him. Controlled hostility, but hostility nonetheless.
"YOU." The man came very close and just growled out a single word, before leaning back a bit, taking out a small cube from his pocket, and throwing it on the ground. He let it all happen, curious to see what the man wanted to do. His eyebrows rose in astonishment as the cube split into four, before creating a very visible blue curtain around both of them. He resisted the urge to poke the curtain, especially with the thing that broke through the Tesseract's energy shielding, and noted the sudden absence of background noise.
Sure, being surrounded by freshly falling snow, the sound deadening was there, but this just isolated them from any interference, which was cool and also something he did not think SHIELD had at this stage.
They were a lot more advanced than he gave them credit for, apparently, or this was just one of those extremely useful but equally expensive prototypes that only the Director could use because he basically ran SHIELD, on the surface anyway.
"Sup?" He tilted his chin up at the man, which only seemed to aggravate the man, which was amusing to him.
Fury's eyes drifted towards the sceptre, his entire body coiled and ready to jump back at a moment's notice, before he made eye(singular) contact, "What are you?"
Ah. So, they noticed the absolute lack of identification in this world. Well, that was bound to happen. He was just dropped into this world with the clothes on his back, a small consolation prize of a thousand bucks in cash, and the unholy grail of combat energy that is chakra, and the basics on how to use it.
Unfortunately, it did not have any jutsu in them but he was getting there, by trial and practice. Right now, he could only perform stunts using chakra control and lightning nature chakra manipulation, which came very easily to him, but the more he lived in the world, the more he interacted with the elements around him, the more he understood the flow of the world and the chakra within his body, the more he learned.
He was sure by this time next year, he would have multiple jutsu down, the most anticipated being the Lightning Chakra Armour. The hardest and the most rewarding jutsu he was working on at the moment.
As for Fury's question, "I am a…Avenger?" His voice trailed towards the end, hesitant in calling himself a part of the legendary team.
"What?" Fury snapped, visibly restraining himself before continuing, "I mean, what are you? Where did you come from? Except for some awful quality fake identification, there is not a single mention of you in any database anywhere on the planet. Where did you come from?"
He shrugged, deciding to mess with the man, "Well, you caught me. I was not born on the planet, but I am still human, if that's what you were asking."
"You are an alien?" Fury's glare increased in intensity, his hand reaching not towards where his gun would be but towards his coat pocket, which housed something else, probably something that would summon Carol Danvers, the nightmare of the Kree Empire.
He waved the man's worries off, purposefully letting the sceptre float by his side, being held in place by his chakra, "Nah, I am a human, but if you are talking it literally, then yes, this is the first time I have come to earth. I have to say, it's nice out here. I can definitely see the appeal."
Fury's mind was probably working overtime, trying to reconcile the clear gap in intel with the somewhat reasonable excuse of someone being on the planet for the first time. He interjected in between, "I am sure you collected the scraps of my DNA off the wall that I was blast into by Thor, something I am still salty about, by the way. I am sure the results showed that I was human."
Fury did not deign that with a response, his gaze moving to the sceptre before looking back at him, his face hardened, "That does not belong to you."
"Sure it does," He said, leaping lightly before sitting on the roof of his car, legs dangling as the sceptre lazily floated to his side. The silence curtain was large enough to cover his entire car, so he was still in the cocoon of silence here, "After all, I won it, fair and square. The previous owner sure didn't seem to mind it."
"Might makes right, huh?" Fury spoke, as if whispering to himself.
He made finger guns at the man, noting the hands tightening around their rifles all around him as a reaction to his mock actions, "Yes! You get it, then."
"Yeah, I get it," Fury said, something in his voice making him stop moving his feet as he looked at the man, who continued, "If you haven't noticed, you are not the one with the most might here." Fury then gestured at the men around them with his eyes.
He openly scoffed, jumping off the roof, the sceptre lazily floating behind him, just as an aesthetic choice on his part, "Please! As if they could do anything to me. You need more than just agents to get me, Fury. You know that. So, why don't we skip the part where I prove my power and get to the real reason why you are here?"
Fury looked at him and then exhaled irritably before continuing, "Fine. I want you to work with SHIELD. The world has become more dangerous than ever, and the world could use someone like you to save innocent people who are increasingly getting exposed to people and organizations that don't think twice before using their powers for evil."
"Hmm," He made a show of deliberation before addressing the giant elephant in the room, "And the sceptre? What of it?"
"Look, I have people I have to answer to as well. They are absolutely demanding the sceptre first and you later, dead or alive. It does not matter to them about any potential good you might do because that thing is an absolute hazard to anyone in power. Politicians are terrified of their mind being taken over. Which is why the sceptre must be handed over to the government. That part cannot be negotiated." Fury stated with an air of finality, as the man tensed, ready for some negative reaction.
"I see," He said, and then, just as he felt the tension in the surrounding reach its crescendo, he reached for the sceptre in one fluid motion and….bolted. A well placed explosion of charka at his feet, had him jumping dozens of feet in the air, with Fury taking the brunt of the shock as he fell on his ass.
Chakra flowed through the sceptre as if it was made for it, as he grinned, and the moment his feet made contact with the land, he unleashed yet another explosion and jumped once more, having angled his body in a way that he jumped, not forward but to the side.
Another well timed explosion had him jumping back, straight towards Fury, even as bullets flew all around him. His perception being enhanced by the raging torrent of chakra flowing through his body, he was able to dodge bullets, even mid air, as he made two jumps before he was right next to the Quinjet.
Placing his feet on the Quinjet next, he let loose another explosion, ripping through the outer shell of the Quinjet, as the Jet wobbled in place precariously. Fortunately, for them, it managed to remain upright, as he made contact with the land before jumping in a zig zag manner at high speeds. Unpredictability was his bread and butter as he navigated the absolutely chaotic flow of bullets around him, as he, once more, reached the Quinjet, and this time, not only did he blow a hole clean through the hull, but he also toppled it over.
His objective complete, he stepped in front of the now disabled Quinjet and looked at the nervous assembly of soldiers and one pissed off Director with a grin on his face. Cracking his neck, he zipped through the soldiers, dismantling their rifles, and then knocking them out, one by one, with ease.
Within a minute, the only people not on the ground, knocked out and/or groaning in pain, were he and Fury.
He greeted the absolutely bloodshot man before quipping, "You'll never catch me alive, Copper!"
He cackled as yet another explosion had him vaulting over the man and right next to his car, which was, miraculously, just fine. As he cranked the engine, which took two attempts, during which Fury had calmly made his way over to his window, as if he was some traffic cop and he was someone struck in the snow, he looked at the man who was now calm, his rage having surpassed regular levels and taken him to absolute murderous, yet calm and cold rage, and mocking saluted him.
"Next time, bring someone better."
With that, he floored the pedal as the tyres just lost their traction, as he hurriedly supplied chakra to the car, as he peeled off into the distance.
The rear view mirror just showed a ruined Quinjet, dozens of men on the ground, and a single man, in a black trench coat just glaring at the car.
"Oops," He whispered to himself, smiling maniacally at himself, as he realised that there could only be one outcome of this meeting.
A clear escalation. An exponential one.
The next time, he would be meeting either the Avengers themselves, who were, meh, without Thor, or Miss Dismantle-Kree-Outposts, i.e, collateral damage barbie.
He couldn't wait