Marvel: Age of Hero

The Gathering Storm: Convincing Heroes

Coulson made the call and waited patiently while, on the other end of the line, the sounds of a fight rumbled as if the walls themselves were shaking. Finally, Black Widow picked up.

"Where's Barton now?" asked Natasha's firm voice on the line.

"We don't know," Coulson replied calmly.

"Is he alive?"

"We believe so." Coulson's eyes moved over several files scattered across his desk. There were recordings of Black Widow and Hawkeye's missions, along with other, more delicate reports he preferred to keep out of sight. "I'll give you all the information when you return. But first, you need to meet with our good friend…and his colorful group."

"Coulson, remember Stark trusts me about as much as he trusts Ivan," Natasha replied, her sarcasm as light as it was sharp.

"You'll speak with their real leader. I'll try Stark's side if it doesn't work," Coulson said seriously.

"…"

"Are you still there?" he asked when the silence stretched on.

"Yes. I'll do it," Natasha finally said before ending the call.

Coulson let out a short sigh and allowed himself a faint smile. "Maybe the honey trap will work," he murmured before leaving the office with a determined step.

…

"No, big guy, you have to use more force and throw upward!" Owen called out as he watched Hulk on the outdoor training field.

"But…hurt friend," Hulk replied, sounding reluctant.

"Don't worry. I'm pretty sturdy," Owen assured him with a calm that suggested he didn't mind the prospect of being launched into orbit.

Not far away, Nicolas was lounging in a folding chair, wearing sunglasses as if he were on vacation in the middle of the base. A masseuse was working on his hands, which already looked perfectly healed.

Before Hulk and Owen could continue their unusual training, the radio at Owen's waist crackled to life.

"Sir, there's someone here to see you," announced a soldier on the frequency.

Owen gestured to Hulk to wait and picked up the radio.

"Who is it?" he asked in his usual unhurried tone.

"Well…the general said it would be best if you saw for yourself," the soldier replied, sounding a bit nervous.

Nicolas raised an eyebrow when he heard that over his own radio. With a small wave, he dismissed the masseuse.

Owen frowned and began walking toward the base. Nicolas slowly got up and approached Hulk.

"Hey, big guy…want to go snoop a bit?" he asked, a mischievous grin on his face.

Hulk, who had been trying some kind of heroic pose, agreed without much thought.

And so, the two of them followed Owen, trying to be discreet…though Hulk clearly didn't know the meaning of the word. Every step made the ground tremble, making it impossible not to notice them trailing behind a super soldier like Owen, who merely shook his head in resignation.

When they arrived, Owen opened the lounge door and stepped inside. He stopped immediately, his gaze sharp with curiosity, before glancing at the soldier standing guard in the corner.

"Did you make sure she didn't plant anything suspicious anywhere?" he asked, never taking his eyes off Natasha.

"Yes, sir. There are active sensors all over the perimeter. Mr. Stark designed them," the soldier answered crisply, snapping to attention.

"Well, well…what brings the lovely spy Natasha Romanoff to our humble base? I thought SHIELD was too busy trying not to eat itself alive," Owen remarked calmly as he walked over to the fridge and took out a cold drink.

"Hello to you too, Owen." Natasha offered a small smile. "I'd love to catch up…but I need your help. All of yours."

At that moment, Nicolas and Hulk poked their heads around the doorway, watching the scene with obvious curiosity and mocking smiles.

Owen allowed himself to really look at her, especially that smile of hers that always seemed like a disguise, before replying:

"If you need help, I'd prefer you not pretend."

Natasha sighed, and in the blink of an eye, her expression shifted to her usual implacable seriousness. "It feels less uncomfortable if I can wear a mask," she admitted plainly.

"No. Not at all," Owen replied, unfazed.

"Owen, we're talking about a possible global catastrophe," Natasha said gravely as she took out her phone and showed an image of a bright blue cube. "This is…"

"The Tesseract," Owen finished, looking at the screen as if she were showing him an ordinary piece of glass. Then he raised his eyes to meet hers. "SHIELD recovered it after rescuing Captain America. I'm guessing they tried to build something stupid with it…and almost triggered a nuclear explosion." He walked over to one of the sofas and sat down calmly, crossing his legs. "After all, our job is to protect life. Though it seems SHIELD is working harder every day to destroy it. I wonder if someday we'll end up as enemies. But honestly, with your internal wars, maybe you'll manage to destroy yourselves first."

Natasha pressed her lips together. There were no excuses to defend the chaos the Tesseract had nearly unleashed.

"We need Dr. Banner to track it. Someone stole it…and if before it was a potential threat, now it could be the real cause of extinction," she said, her voice low and steady.

"Uhum," Owen murmured as he stood up. His eyes swept the room until they paused on a table. He walked over, reached underneath, and pulled out a tiny device the size of a grape. Holding it up, he asked, "Does trying to spy on us also count as saving the world?"

Natasha's eyes darkened for an instant before she sighed. "You know how my director can be," she said, shaking her head wearily.

"For now, I'll think about it. Send me all the information. And please…don't plant any more toys in my home. It's terribly rude," Owen said, looking at her with a smile as polite as it was false.

Natasha held his gaze for a moment, then nodded and walked out in silence.

Owen stood there, watching the door, a spark of amusement lighting his expression.

"Why did you act like a villain?" Nicolas asked as he entered, Hulk lumbering behind him.

"Because…whenever I get the chance to annoy someone, I just can't resist," Owen replied with a broad smile as he crushed the device between his fingers. "Looks like this time, we're going to have a very interesting mission." His eyes rose to meet theirs, glinting with determination. "Call the others."

…

Thump, thump.

In an old gym, the blows against a punching bag echoed through the walls with a deep, resonant sound. The man throwing the punches was covered in sweat, his muscles tense, his breathing steady. With a final strike, the bag flew across the room and crashed into the wall, splitting open and releasing a torrent of sand that scattered across the floor.

Steve Rogers, the first Captain America, let out a sigh as he walked over to a mountain of spare punching bags piled in a corner. He picked up another one as if it weighed no more than a pillow and calmly hung it back in place.

"You can't sleep," came a deep voice that broke the silence, as Fury entered with unhurried steps, his hands behind his back.

"Sleeping seventy years, sir, was enough," Steve replied without looking at him, already starting to hit the bag again.

"You should be out there celebrating," Fury suggested, stepping closer.

Steve paused for a moment. He gave him a tired look and began to unwrap the bandages from his hands.

"When I went under, the world was at war. And when I woke up, they told me we'd won. Nobody mentioned everything we lost along the way," he said, his voice carrying a weight that filled the room.

"We made mistakes," Fury admitted in a lower voice. "Some…more recent than others." He lifted a thick black folder, as if it weighed more than it appeared.

"Do you have a mission for me, sir? You want to bring me back into the world?" Steve asked evenly.

"I want to save it," Fury replied, extending the folder to him.

Steve took it and flipped through the first photographs. He immediately recognized the blue glow.

"Hydra's secret weapon," he murmured when he saw the image of the Tesseract.

"Howard Stark pulled it out of the ocean when he went looking for you," Fury explained seriously, never looking away. "He thought the same as us: that it could be used to generate clean, unlimited energy. Our planet needs that…urgently."

"And who stole it?" Steve asked, handing the folder back as he held back a sigh.

"His name is Loki…and he's not from around here. If you're willing, we need to bring you up to speed on a lot of things. The world…has gotten stranger than you can imagine."

"The day I woke up, some guy calling himself a super soldier kicked my ass. At this point…nothing can surprise me," Steve replied, bending down to pick up one of the broken sandbags and slinging it over his shoulder as if it were nothing.

"I bet that's not true," Fury replied, a faint smile crossing his face.

As Steve walked away, Fury raised his voice without moving from where he stood:

"There's a packet of information that'll be useful to you. Is there anything you know about the Tesseract that might help us?"

Steve kept walking without so much as a glance back.

"That it was better off at the bottom of the ocean," he said before disappearing down the hallway.

…

Meanwhile, high atop Stark Tower, Tony was deep in conversation with Pepper about his new clean energy system powered by the arc reactor. The blue glow lit up the office with an almost ethereal brilliance.

Suddenly, the elevator doors slid open with a soft ding. Coulson stepped in with his usual composed demeanor.

"Security breach," Tony blurted immediately, pointing a finger at Pepper. "This is your fault."

"Mr. Stark, this is extremely urgent," Coulson said, crossing the threshold with quiet authority.

"Phil," Pepper greeted him politely.

"His first name is Phil?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow. "By the way, consultation hours are Thursdays, eight to five," he added, addressing Coulson while moving over to a desk.

"This isn't a consultation, Mr. Stark," Coulson replied without missing a beat.

"Does this have something to do with…the Avengers?" Pepper asked, then immediately corrected herself: "I don't know anything about that."

"And I believe I turned down that initiative," Tony said as he took the laptop from Pepper and began transferring data to his AI with brisk, practiced motions. "After all, my dear colleagues would get all sad and helpless if I left them alone. Especially since the initiative was canceled…and I didn't even qualify. I only said yes to annoy the general," he added with a grin.

"I didn't know that either," Pepper muttered, exasperated.

"Apparently I'm volatile, self-absorbed, don't play well with others…" Tony commented, his sarcasm sounding almost sincere.

"That I did know," Pepper said, with a resigned sigh.

"Hey, tell that to my dear henchmen," Tony shot back in his defense. Though, considering he was referring to the Vitae members, calling them "henchmen" wasn't helping his case.

As he continued tapping away on the tablet, Tony's phone began to ring. He gestured for Pepper and Coulson to wait and answered with an air of boredom, still working one-handed.

The screen lit up, and a hologram projected from the device, showing the members of Vitae—Captain America, Natasha, some of the X-Men, and Iron Man himself.

"Hello, Tony. I'm sure someone's already shown up at your place trying to convince you. Probably Phil," said Owen on the other end of the line, his voice calm.

"Why does everyone know his first name?" Tony asked, almost indignant.

"Because you don't care enough to learn it," Owen replied in that same unflappable tone. "I already accepted. So you might as well accept too—but as part of our group. That way we'll have the majority to actually do…something interesting."

"What thing?" Tony asked, a curious glint in his eyes.

Owen said something so quietly that Coulson couldn't catch it. Tony raised an eyebrow, watching the projection for a few seconds. That spark of intrigue lit up in his gaze instantly.

When he finally looked back at Coulson, a sly, mocking smile was already spreading across his face.