Author: Sorry for the late chapter. It is hard for me to type and check using the phone. I need a few days to adapt to it.
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*Ding* The elevator door on the ground floor is open. Coulson and Natasha are getting out of the elevator where they coincidentally meet again with the angel who had let them upstairs.
"It's only been 15 minutes and you are done? " Gwen asks, a little surprised while holding a white prescription bag.
"A lot of things can happen in 15 minutes. Thank you for your help Miss Stacy." Phil said while smiling. It's like the intense conversation never happened. Gwen saw a tint of red in Natasha's eyes. It puzzled her, but the agents didn't stay to chat.
Gwen gets into the elevator and presses the top floor. "Well I can ask Ryan about it," like a young kitten, she is curious about the whole thing.
Outside the building, an ordinary looking man with a trench coat in the middle of summer, is eating a powdered donut on the sidewalk. His face is messy as the powder is sticking on his mustache and cheek. He smiles as his target has returned to the house.
It wasn't fun if he stole something without its owner around. "Which heist shall I do first, " Spymaster quickly finishes his bagel. His preparation is almost complete. Now it's time for the execution. He walked until he disappeared among the busy crowd of New York City.
In the penthouse. Gwen is checking the bruises that Ryan has. "It is healing quickly." She ran her finger across Ryan's abs while poking at the bruise.
"What did I tell you? I'm fine," he says in an assuring tone. He is glad she cared about him, but he didn't want her to worry for long. He buttoned his shirt back up.
"What did you talk about with the agents," Gwen tries to pry, but before Ryan could answer, the doorbell rang again. The couple's attention is now toward the door. An exhausted looking man is entering the house.
"Young Master, you should give me a heads up if you want to do something crazy. Your father's phone is now blown up with calls, " Hiddle is talking while managing the issue by continuously picking up some calls. Prominent members of the country are practically begging Tim Knight to go easy on them.
"What did you do??" Gwen asks. It's only been 15 minutes since she left. How could Hiddle have to barge from something Ryan did in a short amount of time. Ryan just smiles mysteriously at her.
…
In Hell's Kitchen, an aspiring philanthropist named Wilson Grant Fisk is extremely happy. "By the end of the matter, I don't have to live in the shadows anymore."
He got the biggest opportunity of his life. His service is now required by those rich people. He can swallow a lot of wealth at this moment, and he has it all thanks to…. "Ryan Knight. You are a good man."
In his XXXL size white suit that hides his power, and a cane on his hand, he rides a limousine to go to Long Island where the rich live.
The limousine passes by a black SUV which contained the duo who just got out of a meeting with Ryan.
"Well, I'm taking a 2-week vacation. How about you?" Phil asks Natasha.
"Don't we need to go back?" She is checking the aftermath of Ryan's explosion. Using a tablet, she watches the news.
An up and coming news channel named the Daily Bugle is covering the news without covering anything and trying to twist the narration. At this moment for the public, it's the only news that makes sense.
The lone man started from tabloid news to a news channel everyone is watching right now. He didn't need to wait until revealing Spider-man's identity to be successful right now. J Jonah Jameson is now becoming the face of modern news.
[ Here it is Folk! PROOF THAT THE MAN RESPONSIBLE for the murder of….]
[The situation in the Middle East is caused by…]
The more Natasha reads the news, the more solemn she is. Phil decides not to care about it. He is humming while driving to Kai's place. Natasha rolls her eyes at him.
"Drop me off at the safe house. I will return to Shield by myself, " she requested. It seems like the country is going to be busy. She didn't feel like it was time to relax.
"No, " Phil answered shortly.
"What do you mean… 'No' ?" Natasha feels like Phil is a little strange. A seventh level agent, and he didn't want to get to work to help the country.
"Go to Kai. Get a hug. Stay for lunch and dinner. Sleep there. Don't go back now." Phil decides for Natasha. He makes a turn and finally arrives at Kai's.
Natasha is silent. What Ryan said today about her not going to be free truly messes with her mind. She wants to go to Kai's, but she is torn. That's why Phil decided for her.
" This is a direct order from your supervisor. Go." Phil stops the car in front of Kai's place. It's only a 20 step walk for her to enter the building. However, Natasha is still sitting in the SUV.
"Is it… really okay for me to do this?" She asks, breaking the silence in the car.
"Yes. It is okay. Turn off your phone. I will take care of Shield." Phil said. At this time, the balding agent seems really dependable. Natasha gets out of the car. Phil drives off when he sees her walking in. Not long after, he got a call from the one-eyed cyclop.
"Coulson. What did you talk about with Ryan Knight? Why is he doing this?" Nick Fury is taking command of the panicked agents in the Triskelion Building. The analyst had called him after they saw the data on Ryan's place. He needs to stand against the world security council to give some answer.
"I don't talk much. And can you really blame him for this?" Phil answers nonchalantly. Fury on the other side of the call is surprised. Coulson had never treated him so casually like this.
"I didn't approve your vacation request, come back to the headquarters," The director orders. Fury's mind starts to spiral. Is Coulson replaced with someone else? Did Ryan Knight have some Skrull contact on his own?
"Then I quit. I think Stark is hiring a new head of security. I will put in my resume. The pay is better anyway." Phil said decisively with a hint of teasing. He knows he can't quit his job. Shield won't let him. He knows too much.
"...." Fury is speechless.
"Is this really your choice Phil?", he asks for confirmation. That kind of thinking can only come from Phil. It calms him down as the possibility that Phil is replaced is lowered. It didn't vanish, just lowered.
Suddenly he is 'Phil' . The agent is amused. It's been a long time since he is up against Fury. But he didn't feel anxious at all.
"Yes it is. I think Shield doesn't have to be involved in the matter. It wasn't a supernatural power or extraterrestrial attack. Just some criminal being brought to justice."
He definitely didn't join Shield to protect these kinds of people. Sure there will be chaos for a while, but it won't involve the citizens.
Phil ends the call with Fury after talking for a while. He drives to Manhattan Symphony Hall, to meet up with someone he misses dearly. The cellist.
After the call is cut, Fury is silent in his empty room. Then, a bright smile appears on his face. He walked out to meet with the Security Council. There is another agenda on his mind besides handling the chaos.
-Agent Phil Coulson will be promoted to the eight level-
He gives a notice to the other agents. Fury has been waiting for this day for so long. Finally, his successor shows signs of breaking out of the pupa and taking charge.
…
Apartment 4D. Natasha is staring at the white door to Kai's apartment. Even though Phil asks her to go in, her steps stop before she does. She stands there for a while, before giving up and going back to her rented apartment, the 4C.
*Clang* A loud sound is heard from Kai's apartment! Natasha's eyes widened. She runs to Kai's place and quickly opens the door. The 8 digit keypad is pressed and she enters.
There is no one in the living room. She goes to check Kai's room for the source of the sound.
"Damn it Felicia. I am fixing your belt after this. Let me focus on the watch first." Kai said while stroking the fur of his companion beast.
There is something special about the Bakeneko. He knew it after he chatted with the seller. To get the companion beast egg, usually the people on the seller universe will kill the beast first and the egg will drop. But not the Bakeneko.
People only need to get near the cat. The cat will in turn change itself into a companion beast. Folklore says that the yokai Bakeneko loves humans and will warn them in case something bad is happening. That's why even though Felicia is a companion beast, she still behaved like a normal cat.
Kai is having a day off today. He is inside his room, fixing up old watches while recording the process. He is posting it on his YouTube channel, where he has millions of subscribers.
The black widow walks into the sight of Kai stroking Felicia's fur. Kai notices her and gets up to greet her.
"Have you finished your job? Will you be going back?" He asks.
"Why, you're counting the days?" She said teasingly. She walks slowly to approach Kai. When she sees his face, she knows that her running towards the sound is an excuse that she gave herself.
"Nah, I will be sad when you leave," He wants to focus back on the watch, but Natasha hugs him from behind, startling Kai. Ryan connected to him telepathically at this time and shared what happened.
'Heads up,' Ryan said.
'Damn man, that's too harsh, ' Kai is checking the memory. Ryan really shook up Natasha.
'Sorry about that. I had to do it. I will leave the rest up to you, ' Ryan feels guilty about it.
'(sigh) I know. Leave the rest to me,' Kai holds Natasha's arm that is wrapped around him and removes it. He turns to Natasha. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close to him.
"You want a beer?" He said, trying to comfort her. Natasha shook her head. She wants to enjoy the hug right now.
*Click* "Kai, want to go…", The sentence stopped abruptly. Skye walks into the room at the time and sees the people there behaving lewdly. They are hugging for God sake. She froze at the door when the sight entered her eyes. Kai turned slightly to look at her.
The time seems to stand still. Suddenly, Skye makes the first move. She closes the door to the bedroom slowly. *Click* She locks the door for Kai. Her face was bright red at the time.
"Oi, " Kai has a feeling that Skye misunderstood something.
…
On the hidden island, Hela is surrounded by a group of grotesque demons. The island sky is red, demonic flesh grows all over the ground. There is no trace of life on the island.
Hela faced all of them using two white swords with golden runes on their blades. She's without any armor, only a white dress. Despite that, her battle thirst is satisfied like a rain in the desert.
She had been fighting for hours now. Kicking, slashing, breaking the demons neck. Green fluid splattered all over her body. Finally, she will meet the boss of the demons.
In the horror scene, she is not alone. There's 3 midgets behind her fighting with plasma guns.
"DIE DEMON DIE!!!" Sive laughs loudly like a maniac, continuously shooting the demons. Dotty and Mia are also shooting like crazy.
Mercy, that is the thing the girl has lost since getting addicted to the war. A half blown demon crawls with its hand to get to Mia. It moves slowly, without any of the girls realising it.
*Grrr* When it's near enough, it attacks Mia! Hela notices this and throws her silver sword to the demon.
"Be more alert. This is our fourth time attempting this. It's disgraceful to get so many chances for a warrior !" Hela yelled.
The kids trio nods when hearing the command. Their tension is at an all time high! A 10 meter tall demon rises up from the ground. It swallowed the air around him, and shrieks loudly! The island shook from the roar.
The trio regroups with Hela to fight the boss. "This time, we will win!" Sive said. Like a jinx, the scene paused at this time.
"Noooo!" Dotty screams. The demons turn virtual and disappear. A gentle voice resounded on the entire battlefield. "Kids, you need to log off now. It's time for bed. You have school tomorrow."
Hela tries to protest for the kids. " Dawn, Warrior should finish the battle on the Warfield!!" She says with pride. Also, she still wants to play.
Unfortunately it was ignored. "The game will be shut down in 1 minute. Prepare to exit deep dive" Dawn warns the players.
The realistic battlefield is a VR game developed by Ryan. He tries to mimic Sword Art Online games for it. The demons that Hela and the children fight are based on the Doom video game. It is really fun for Hela, but there are a lot of restrictions on the game. She didn't understand why Ryan is making the game like this.
They will follow the NPC to finish the game. There are a lot of unskippable cutscenes. Hela tries to protest by killing the NPC, but it will be game over after that. She has to listen to the dialogue, or she will lose her progress by making the wrong choice.
Ryan especially makes it so that if the kids die in the game, Hela progress will also be lost. She gets mad at first and threatens to flip everything but Dawn tells her that the game maker is now dead, so even if she gets mad, there's nothing she can do about it.
That is before she found out Ryan could modify the game. Sometimes being a genius is troublesome. Hela has learned a lot of things about Midgard from the kids. She even learns that her castle design is from Ryan.
"Alright, give me your best warrior to follow me into battle," is what she says at the time when Dawn introduces her to the game. But most islander isn't interested in trying the game, except for the kids. Hela sees it as a grotesque demon, while for kids, it is censored to cartoonish ones.
She didn't realise the hidden condition. She can't change her teammate until the game is over. If she didn't protect the kids, then she couldn't fight. It's been a long time for her since she fought to protect someone.
Hence, the 'midgets' following her around the battlefield. They are not too short, but Hela is even taller than Dawn.
"Don't bother me. Don't interfere when I am fighting, " She commanded the kids at first. Now, in their 15th session, the command changes.
"Follow me and learn. Don't mess it up," Hela is now having the time of her life. She couldn't use her divinity or Asgardian power in the game. She is a weak mortal there, who will grow stronger with the battles.
At first, Hela looked down on these mortals, however, she notices that the kids trio's battle sense grows rapidly in real combat.
'They have potential to become a true warrior,' Sometimes she is very satisfied with the kids, and sometimes she wants to hit them when they tripped on a straight path or get distracted when the battle is ongoing.
They even reminded her of the elite female warrior group under Odin that she decimated before. Sometimes. Not all the time.
Her difficulties of achieving a satisfying battle grew as Dawn only allows the kid to play for only 3 hours a day.
"This is ridiculous!" Hela protested again, but he shot down her arguments instantly.
"Have you ever read a parenting book or have children on your own? If not then your opinion is invalid," Dawn said while waving a book on her face.
"I am to be King! My opinion is a decree you must follow, " She tries to play the king card, but it is useless against Dawn.
"A wise king should know that children are our future. And the wise king should also know when to take advice from her council,"
She was speechless at the time. For a few hours a day, she took the time to enter the teaching class by Yinsen. She learns to beat up Dawn with words as she couldn't do it physically at this moment.
"He is getting cockier," The guy is really unpleasant. Where is the Dawn who used to follow her every word? She couldn't wait until Odin fell asleep once more. At that time, she will teach Dawn to be loyal to her.
Dawn knows what she is thinking. He is helpless to do anything about it. Ryan is avoiding the island as Hela is trying to make him fix the game every single time he is here.
At the island square, Yinsen and a few women are gathered there to be teleported to Somalia. Hela just exited the game at the moment where she saw the people gathering.
"Is the trouble not over yet?" She asks Annika who is waiting there.
"No, GodKing Hela. The situation is worsening. About a thousand spies and insurgents are captured by the army. The people in the country are riled up. The acting president is silent, so Obax faction had to step up,"
"Dawn could kill all of them with a wave of his staff. What is he waiting for?" Hela didn't understand this. The enemy is only a mortal.
Yinsen took over explaining to Hela. "If he does that, then the country won't be peaceful. Instead, it will become the enemy of the world,"
"The situation is now sensitive. The country couldn't retaliate, and at the same time they needed to make sure the spy couldn't muddy the water. It is a tough line to walk. I have left you a book on Building a Nation if you want to read it," The old man smiles.
Hela nods. When she starts to learn, she notices that the mortals have their own ways. In their limited time, some reach the threshold of a wise man. They keep trying to learn, and teach the other mortals to learn.
The group teleported away when Dawn came. In Somalia, a group of insurgents is kneeling at an empty stone throne.
Obax and a few others are standing beside the throne, waiting for judgment. The insurgent is begging them for mercy. But it didn't come. An ethereal voice sounded inside the insurgents mind.
"You betrayed your nation for the sake of money. The new laws make you feel limited. And you can't change from your old ways,"
"Please.. Don't kill me…" The insurgents are begging the figure on the empty throne.
"I won't. I will make you change. Whether you like it or not," Dawn has no qualms in doing so. He takes out a device and asks Obax to lead the rest outside the room, leaving only the insurgent there.
It is the Brainwashing device he made with Retired Mechanic's help. Inside, the voice of an Esper with a brainwashing ability is recorded. It is set at the highest level of brainwashing. No insurgent will walk out of here with their personality unchanged.
A week passes by since Ryan lit the fuse. The country is finally calming down. Somalia is also free from pressure. Things are going back to normal. It is now the second day of July.
Skye has an important thing to do today. It is finally her 18th birthday. As of today, Kai no longer has any legal obligation towards her as a guardian. In the country's law, she is considered an adult.
In the training room at New York base, Jessica and Ava are showing their support towards Skye.
"He will say yes. I am sure of it," Jessica says.
"For once I agree with the drunkard. He will definitely say yes. You just need to ask him." Ava says while pushing Skye from behind.
"Go. Don't delay it any longer. "
Skye's heart is beating quickly. She walks to the clinic where Kai is working. She has an important question to ask Kai today.