Marvel: Age of Hero

Sorry for the previous chapter. I always have the translator extension active and didn't realize it switched to English as soon as I clicked upload. Here's another chapter.

Files, Suspicions, and Old Wounds

"What is this?" Owen asked with visible annoyance as he flipped through the files the general had handed them. The moment he opened them, his gaze tensed at the word printed on the cover: AVENGERS INITIATIVE.

"Fury sent them. Looks like he wants to form some kind of… superhero team to face threats together and, according to him, protect the world," Nathaniel remarked, letting out a faint hint of mockery in his voice.

Meanwhile, the newcomers waited in a corner, discomfort etched all over their faces. Well, all except one, who was smoking and drinking alcohol as if the place were his own living room.

The newcomers were Logan—better known as Wolverine—and a blond young man who kept shooting nervous glances, not only at the Vitae members but especially at Logan, as if he feared the man might rip his arm off at any moment. That was Bobby, the ice kid.

They looked more like a nervous son-in-law in front of a grumpy father-in-law. It was almost an amusing scene to witness.

"And did you even bother to read these files?" Owen asked calmly, raising an eyebrow at Nathaniel.

"No. I just brought them. They arrived in my inbox this morning," Tony chimed in with his usual nonchalance, stepping back into the room while swirling his glass of whiskey. His eyes briefly settled on Wolverine and Bobby with a flicker of interest. "So these are the new guys? Do they already have some official and exciting codename, or can I name them again?" he asked with a grin before dropping into the chair next to Nicolas, who remained slumped forward, forehead resting on the table and his bandaged hands on either side of his head.

"Ohhh, they want to steal our men. We should do the same," Owen commented with a hint of sarcasm.

"He wants to bring a S.H.I.E.L.D. spy into our facility," Nathaniel retorted, staring at him seriously.

"It was a joke, old man," Owen quickly replied. Apparently, the conflict between Nathaniel and Fury ran so deep that it left no room for lighthearted comments.

"And what's wrong with him?" Tony asked, ignoring the entire discussion while gesturing at Nicolas with his chin.

"It's better if you ignore him," Owen warned, but before he could finish, Nicolas raised his head. His eyes were glassy, his expression a mix of despair and simmering frustration.

"Shut up, idiot! My complaints are real. I'm the only normal one in this group of freaks… no offense," he added, shooting a sideways glance at Logan, who frowned at being looked at like that.

"Hey, I'm technically normal too," Tony protested, sounding almost offended.

"Yeah, sure. Say that again when you don't have a damn nuclear power plant embedded in your chest fueling armors and weapons of mass destruction. I'm the only one without superpowers… or super money… or super anything," Nicolas snapped before dropping his head back onto the table with an exasperated groan.

"You've got super marksmanship," Owen tried to console him with a nearly sympathetic gesture.

"Shut up! That's not super at all. It's a skill I forced myself to master with brutal training. When I wanted to go out with some girl in high school, I had to spend hours shooting like an idiot. When I wanted to go traveling in college, more hours shooting. When I wanted to—" he began ranting bitterly.

"Yeah, we get it," Owen cut in, pressing two fingers to the bridge of his nose in irritation. "It's not like you wouldn't have done it all anyway," he added with a trace of irony.

"Shut up, training addict! I just wanted a normal, relaxed life. And now, I still ended up stuck in this group of freaks… no offense," he repeated, looking again at Logan, who this time began unsheathing his claws with a slow, threatening motion, as if he were about to leap across the table.

"So, what exactly is your complaint? Not having superpowers?" Tony asked, leaning forward with genuine curiosity.

Owen let out a long sigh, shaking his head in resignation before rolling his eyes.

"He got injured for being part of this group. You could say he was hurt in action… and since he's the most normal one here, he thinks he deserves two weeks on a private yacht. According to him, that's not too much to ask," he explained with a hint of sarcasm, while Nathaniel exhaled a heavy sigh, as if regretting the existence of his foolish son.

Luckily, Bruce Banner walked in just then, before everything could spiral out of control.

"Hey… I found something interesting," he announced, stepping into the room holding a tablet. "Remember the explosion you asked me to look into?" he said, addressing Owen.

"Yeah. The one that caused those guys over there to show up," Owen replied, gesturing at Logan and Bobby, who immediately straightened up with interest. After all, they also wanted to know how the hell they'd ended up here.

"Well, I tried to trace what exactly they were investigating. The first thing I did was reconstruct a timeline, from the explosion backward… and I found a strange individual," Banner explained, projecting an image of a young man in his twenties with an arrogant look on his face. Seeing it, Owen frowned as if trying to remember where he'd seen him before.

"This guy showed up one day at A.I.M. headquarters, and now he's completely vanished. It caught my attention, so I dug up some more information about him," Banner continued, scrolling through the data on the screen.

"No education, no career, barely surviving with part-time jobs he kept losing because of his shitty attitude. According to his former bosses, he was always going on about how something great was coming… and how everyone would end up beneath him," he recounted with an amused grimace.

"And what's so interesting about some moron who fantasized without ever doing anything?" Tony asked, visibly uninterested.

"The places he went," Banner replied, his tone suddenly serious.

"New Mexico, right when Thor's hammer fell… and where a scientist's car exploded under pretty suspicious circumstances. Before that, he was in Monaco with Justin Hammer. Apparently, he stole one of the ARC reactors Vanko built," Banner continued. As he said this, Tony set his glass down and looked up, more serious than usual.

"He was also near the university where Hulk fought Abomination. Why would he go there if he wasn't a student? And one more thing, thanks to Jarvis's help: he shorted stocks right before Tony was captured by the Ten Rings… though he lost all his money when Tony appeared live on TV, alive," Banner finished, letting silence fill the room.

That last part caught everyone's attention completely, but especially Owen's. He stayed perfectly still, brow furrowed, his gaze fixed on the photo. There was something about that man's movements… something disturbingly familiar.

Obviously, it was something Owen also knew. And for a very specific reason.

"What happened to him?" he asked in a serious voice, without taking his eyes off the image.

"He vanished," Banner replied, scrolling through the data on the screen with mild disgust. "They saw him heading toward A.I.M. carrying a briefcase. Maybe he had the stolen ARC reactor inside. It's likely he struck some deal with the company's president. I'll try to dig up more, because this whole thing reeks of conspiracy."

"You two," Nathaniel suddenly interjected, turning to face Logan and Bobby with a stern expression. "What exactly did you hear before you ended up here?"

Bobby cleared his throat, throwing an awkward glance at Logan before speaking:

"I think it was something like… 'No… no, it wasn't supposed to be like this…! I was going to be a god!' 'Everything was supposed to come to me… like in the mangas! Like in the novels! I reincarnated in the Marvel world, damn it! That means I'm the protagonist! The girls would fall for me, I'd have a broken system, unlimited powers…!' 'I did everything right… I did what the protagonists do: I waited around for everything to fall into my lap! I deserve it! I deserve to be the strongest! The chosen one!'"

As Bobby repeated the words verbatim, some of them sounded so ridiculous that Tony could barely hold back a laugh.

"Then… there was just a 'Nooooo!'… and it was like an explosion opened up a massive hole that swallowed all of us. The school, the ground under our feet… it was pretty surreal," Bobby finished with a shrug. Logan simply nodded in silence, frowning.

"Do you know what A.I.M. is working on lately?" Tony asked abruptly, his expression turning serious.

"Something called Extremis," Banner explained, his voice measured but firm. "A type of experimental serum that supposedly helps regenerate lost limbs. They've got government backing, but… in their trial phase, the test subjects—rats, in this case—ended up bursting into flames and uncontrolled heat."

"And you think they might be trying it on humans… and that idiot went to sell himself off in exchange for 'power'?" Tony pressed, choosing each word carefully.

"It's possible," Owen interjected before Banner could answer, a pensive note in his voice.

"Why are you so sure?" Nathaniel asked, staring at him as if trying to read his thoughts.

"Because he personally took a stolen ARC reactor there," Owen replied calmly, resting his arms on the back of his chair. "That reactor could have sold for millions to any competitor of Tony's. But A.I.M. isn't an energy company… it's a biotech firm. What sense does it make to negotiate with them over something they don't even produce or use? Unless…"

He fell silent for a moment. He didn't say out loud what was on his mind: that if Extremis was perfected, it would grant unimaginable power. And that man… surely he knew it. Not because he was some visionary, but because he was a coward desperate to become something special without lifting a finger to earn it. The kind of man Owen despised more than any armed enemy.

"All right," Nathaniel conceded at last, letting out a heavy sigh. "Find out if A.I.M. is conducting illegal human trials. If they are, they'd be breaking too many laws. And even if it's none of our business… if they're hurting innocents, we'll intervene."

"Yes," Banner replied, nodding firmly. Deep down, he always felt a little out of place in that group. But ever since Hulk crashed into his life and everything had turned upside down, at least he had a purpose. Maybe that was why he worked so hard to help with the research and technical side of things. At the end of the day… he wanted to do something that justified his place among them.

"Good work, Banner," Nathaniel said, nodding to him.