章 11: The Helicarrier
Kieran was walking home slowly from a session at the Wing Chun dojo, he quickly checked his surroundings before doing a slight run up, climbing into the bathroom window into his home.
The door to the living room is open, he never leaves it open. Kieran's guard instantly raised before listening as best as he can heard a steady strong heartbeat coming from his living room, he quickly burst through the door pulling his knife from its sheath on his waist in a smooth movement mid run.
He pushed off the floor towards the sound holding the knife against the intruder's neck, an oddly familiar looking intruder he thinks to himself, her short hair reminds him of someone.
He shakes the thought off before going to speak and as he opens his mouth he is cut off "Sir, if you can take the knife from my neck? The snipers are getting antsy" the calm cool voice said her heartbeat letting him know she isn't lying.
He can dodge bullets yes, but not sniper bullets that can come from anywhere, he checks over his body for any cliche lasers not seeing one. He slowly pulled the knife away, putting it back into the sheath before stepping back.
"You're gonna tell me why you're here and who you are" he says his voice steady and eyes narrowed on her figure.
"Yes of course Mr…?" Prompting his name, what she doesn't know is that it's been 2 years since he's gotten here and he has lost all social skills during that time, the most he ever spoke was to his tigers, both of which couldn't speak back.
Kieran raised his eyebrows waiting for her to continue, he looked around the room awkwardly when she just stopped speaking. "Your name sir, what is it?" She said her voice was calm but hinting at a subtle frustration.
"Oh, uh my name is Kieran?" He said getting more and more confused at the situation.
"We know that, your last name is…?" She prompted, clearly getting more annoyed by every response.
"Tora, Kieran Tora" that was not his last name, he made that up on the spot, his real name felt too personal to give up to this lady, and he watched her pull out her phone messaging someone before returning to attention.
"Ok Mr Tora we've been keeping track of you these last 2 years, You fighting the Hulk, taking out several drug houses etc etc" Kieran just nodded he now had an inkling on who this was, SHIELD.
"Now you may be asking yourself who I am and who I work for, correct?" She didn't wait for a response before continuing "I work for a worldwide organisation named S.H.I.E.L.D this organisation wants your help with a mission, here are all the details" she said as she handed him a file which he took a look through.
Loki, huh the first avengers movie is already come around. And this time there will be an addition to the avengers, he gave her a smile "I accept this mission on one condition, that I get paid for my work during this mission. Not that saving the world isn't a good reason, it's just, uh well…I want money" he said with a shrug "350 grand should do" he said before handing her the file.
Her eyes narrowed "Fine I'll be sure to let the higher ups know" she agreed oddly quickly and he did hear her heartbeat indicate she's lying, he huffed in his head knowing he will have to take it up with Nick Fury.
"Before that though I grab some stuff, my current attire isn't fit for saving the world and all" he quickly entered his cupboard by the windows which he had fixed earlier this year grabbing his attire and putting it all into a bag. Also making sure to grab his mask before closing the cupboard and turning to the agent.
"Follow me" she ordered and he followed through the building eventually ending up near a luxurious black car.
—-
They pulled up beside a quintet seeing another car leaving. Kieran got out of the car looking at the technical marvel before getting in the jet from its ramp.
He almost staggered in his steps as he saw Captain America sat down casually fiddling with a wallet.
The captain noticed him almost instantly before standing and offering his hand "you must be the tiger guy?" Kieran just nodded, shaking the legends hand a bit too long.
"Anyway my name is Steve Rogers, nice to meet you" the captain said, his friendly smile causing Kieran to smile himself.
"Yeh I'm Kieran nice to meet you too" Kieran said, still shaking the Captain's hand. Steve was slightly surprised by his British accent.
The captain thought he had met a potential fan from the long handshake, not knowing Kieran had forgotten many aspects of social interaction along with how long to hold a handshake for.
Kieran let go with a smile thinking he just did a great job, 'huh human interaction, this is light work' "oh and yeah I'm the tiger guy".
The captain nodded "Very interesting abilities you have, young man" as the blonde man sat down he observed the newcomer, he looked young in the 17-20 range. You could call him handsome with his black hair, blue eyes and his sharp jaw.
However the Captain was looking for more than the superficial appearance of the young man. The Captain took time to notice the bags under the man's eyes the deep set weariness as if he hadn't had a good sleep in a long time and the bright eyed excitement of the younger man.
"So your british, I had an old friend from Britain herself, her name was Peggy" he said while reminiscing on times not so long ago for him.
"Yep, born and raised" Kieran said before sitting down.
Agent Coulson decided to introduce himself to Kieran, "Ah Mr Tora nice to meet you" Coulson noticed the black haired teen did not react to his own name instantly coming to multiple separate conclusions from being tired, being high and the most worrying Fake name.
Coulson hid his worry behind a well practised smile, "Mr Tora sorry for startling you, I just wanted to make a formal introduction, my name is Agent Coulson I'm here to bring you to the base and lead you to the team, any questions?"
"Nah I'm good man, got everything from the file in my head" Kieran answered while tapping his temple "Oh right my name is Kieran Tora, nice to meet you agent"
The agent smiled before starting to talk to the Captain, Kieran ignoring them looking out the window 'Damn I'm good at this talking thing'
—-
The jet landed with a thunk and a jolt, the jet ramp opened revealing that they were on an aircraft carrier, Kieran stepped out after the captain, watching a red headed woman walking towards them as he stretched his aching legs.
He stood fully at attention when the Black widow approached and started to talk to Coulson and the captain, she sent Coulson to the ships bridge and started to lead the captain around, he followed as a 3rd party not really knowing what to do.
"Dr Banner" Steve said to a nearby nervous looking man. Kieran's mind froze as his vision centred on Bruce Banner his mind racing back to the hulk fight, the pain he felt as he was manhandled, the emotions he felt, the sheer rage he found within himself when he found The Kids body mangled, destroyed and desecrated from when The Hu- He took a deep breath and closed his eyes not noticing the black widow keep an eye on his reaction.
He opened his eyes back open as he heard the doctor approach him, "Hey I uh heard the other guy got into a uh altercation with you, I just wanna say sorry for any damage he may have caused" the nervous Dr said with the concern in his voice clear to all listeners, Steve perked up hearing this and Natasha watched warily.
Kieran nodded "yeh don't worry about it all good man" he lied as he offered his hand to the Dr shaking it before quickly letting go awkwardly standing around waiting for someone to say anything.
He almost sighed in relief as Black widow started to speak about coming inside the aircraft, he followed her suggestion following a good few steps back from Steve and Bruce.
—-
He followed the group into the Helicarrier, watching the agents all working to keep this giant thing flying, and getting his first look at Nick Fury.
He watched Nick fury get handed some money from the captain 'i dont remember that happening' he thought to himself as the Director approached him offering his hand to shake to which Kieran accepted.
"Mr. Tora a pleasure to have you here helping us" Kieran nodded before letting go of his hand and speaking back.
"A pleasure to be here sir, it's quite the Marvel" he snickered in his head at the stupid inside joke before watching as the director approached Bruce before ignoring them and sitting down at the comfortable looking seats.
He watched as Dr Banner left to a lab before standing and sitting next to a man playing Galaga and watching.
"Captain! Tora you guys are up!" Tora stood before following the captain to a jet, 'this must be when Loki was in uh Russia or something, god I should write what I remember down at some point'.
—-
Tora got changed on the jet getting into a uniform he can fight in, that was a pair of black military boots, black military trousers, a tight black long sleeve T-shirt and his trusty leather jacket.
He pulled his mask up to his nose and put his gloves on, ready to fight a god. He thought about his leather jacket, he loved it like a son really.
The thing grew along with him, he was scared he would grow out of it one day but nope this thing will fit him until he's 89.
He dropped out of the jet after Steve did "The last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we disagreed".
'Huh Germany I've never been here before' Kieran thought to himself as he observed Loki, as Loki was talking to the Captain he started to circle around making sure to keep it slow and get into a position for a quick knockout blow,
The Quinjet showing up was a good enough distraction so as Loki fired at the quintet and as the Captain threw his shield at Loki, Kieran struck.
From behind Loki he pounced sending the man flying with a kick to the back and as Loki turned towards Kieran Steve caught him with a shield to the face, as Loki was recovering Kieran hit him with a roundhouse kick to his face staggering him even more.
With Loki staggering and Captain America and The Avatar of the Tiger God he had a hard enough chance before iron man flew in shooting the god with his repulsors.
Kieran watched as Iron Man made Loki surrender before they put him in chains.
—-
As Kieran watched the tense conversation from Iron Man and the captain he jolted when lightning showed up out of nowhere, he also watched as an almost 7ft tall man strode in, threw stark aside like nothing grabbed Loki and flew off.
Kieran still nonchalant since he did know this would happen and what would come off it just laid back as Iron man and the captain jumped from the jet.
"Are you not jumping?" Agent Romanoff asked curiously from the pilot seat, turning her body towards him.
"Nope they got enough guys down there, they'll be fine" he said with an air of confidence as he pulled out his phone he messaged his teacher 'Sorry can't be at sessions for a while just to let you know'.
The jet was taken in a slightly awkward silence as Kieran played a free game on his phone. He did notice they started to land the jet near a forest.
And as they landed Kieran put his phone away and started to think, to really think what happened these last two years and couldn't think of much, he really didn't do anything except for the first couple weeks here.
He settled down, he realised, got into a routine and that the only things he really did was rob criminals and not even the ambitious ones, just a couple drug houses and then your average schmucks.
What even was his routine, wake up, work out, go wing Chun lesson, eat, then beat up criminals, eat and then go to sleep. He's honestly wondering why the Tiger God didn't smite him already, he had been quite boring while here.
What notable things have I ever done? I've been in the news a couple times, one time when footage was found of me fighting Hulk and the other times all related to me being a Vigilante who saved people and then robbed the criminals.
The news didn't react to that well and that would be putting it nicely, basically saying he was a no good criminal etc etc. It didn't surprise him, if someone as good as Spider-Man got bad press when saving people of course Kieran would when robbing them.
The sounds of fighting seemed to have stopped so Kieran closed his eyes and leant back waiting for them to come back to the jet, and they did quickly. All of them entered the jet. Thor and Loki included. Kieran was again shocked at the size of Thor.
Compared to the movie characters most people seemed slightly different, Tony Stark looks a little younger and slightly taller, Captain America is way bigger and also a decent couple inches taller. Natasha Romanoff looked pretty spot on to the movie but there was quite the unsettling air around her.
But Thor, fucking hell this guy was probably a whole foot taller his biceps the size of basketballs, what he means to say is that Thor looks quite a bit more Godly. It seems they all look slightly more like the comic counterparts.
They were now flying again and as they all sat down an awkward silence encompassed the jet occasionally broken by Starks jokes and Thor's quiet murmuring to his brother.
—-
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce said with a pained look on his face. It's clear why he's got the look on his face, he just realised that SHIELD built a steel cage for him that was meant to kill him, that must be an odd feeling Kieran mused.
"Lokis going to drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve said, his voice calm.
"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard, nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth for the Tesseract." His voice was deep and pondering.
Kieran ignored the rest of the conversation; he knew how it went and he could remember this part fairly well. 'So he's got an army, how do 6 people fend off an army of super aliens' he thought to himself quite awed by the strength of the Avengers.
Kieran came back to attention as Tony Stark entered the room and started his performance, it was quite entertaining to be fair to the man. He almost laughed when Stark asked how Fury sees the screens, it was a valid question.
As Stark continued to speak science and psychics, Kieran leaned his head on the table, "Ah the tiger guy right?" He was ejected from his calm state of mind as Stark started to speak to him.
"Yeh tiger guy my na-" Stark interrupted quickly.
"Yep Kieran…something, Right? It was on the files I was given. So spill the secret, how do you get those pet tiger things, some sort of nano tech or maybe a breakthrough in hardlight?" Stark rambled on, Kieran slowly raised his head and yawned.
"It's uh, well I can just summon them I guess?" Kieran said, he's not explaining to Stark he was an Avatar of a Tiger God that just sounded absolutely mad.
"Ah don't kid with me, don't worry but I'll find your secret soon" Tony said before seeming to interrupt himself somehow "Actually let me see them, the tigers I mean." He almost demanded.
Kieran almost smiled under his mask as he summoned Shere and Khan who are both quite a bit bigger now, both about a foot taller, they roared as they showed, almost instantly silencing the whole ship as they looked towards the paralysing sound.
Saying Bruce looked panicked was being kind it seemed he had an inkling to who these tigers were and what they were capable of, from the Hulks memory's of course.
Steve jumped out of seat grabbing his shield, Tony jumped back almost tripping over his own feet before recomposing himself quickly when he realised the tigers were now licking Kieran's face.
Thor just watched on with an odd expression on his face as he stared at the Tigers; it was almost like he had seen them before.
Romanoff was clearing, fingering her gun on her waist before Kieran quickly let the tigers leave, disappearing into mist.
Kieran was wiping his face, trying to get rid of ghost slobber.
"No tricking me I saw that, I'll find out what tech you used for it" Tony said his panic and worry wiped away like nothing happened before talking to Bruce about the cube.
Tony started to speak about the other guy and by the look on Bruce's face he wasn't exactly comfortable with the questions.
"Dr. Banner is only here to help us find the Cube" Nick Fury said to Stark as he walked into the room scanning the occupants as he spoke.
"I would like to know how Loki used that spear of his to turn two of my sharpest men into my flying monkeys" Fury said, his face still serious even as Thor and Captain America started to discuss said monkeys.
As Banner and Stark left to the labs Kieran stood back up walking over to the Galaga man and watching him play. Missing the bewildered looks Fury, Romanoff and Steve gave him.
"Hey can I have a go" Kieran asked, his voice muffled by the mask.
—-
"What's with you and the tiger guy?" Tony asked Bruce "It was all tense in there, especially when you saw those 2 tigers he had hidden in his back pocket" Tony stated while he was walking around the lab he and Bruce occupied.
"Oh, uh well him and the other guy got into a fight, I have some brief memory of it." Bruce swallowed and cleared his throat. "I can remember the look on the kids face, the rage, the grief, all of it." Bruce said his voice sombre as he remembered the fight.
"I, uh, probably hurt someone he cared about when the other guy was out, and I remember those tigers." He chuckled self deprecatingly "they uh tore the other guys legs up quite badly" he swallowed before getting back to work.
"The kid" Tony said while examining a screen not waiting for Bruce's response "you said the kid isn't he like 20 something? I forgot what the file said" he said while now working on a different new screen.
"Uh no he was like..16 when I fought him he was, he was young" Bruce said shamefully "and well we fought like uh 2 years ago now, so well he's still a teen" he said as he got back to work focusing on other subjects.
—-
"Tiger Man, I wish to converse with you." Thor said as he walked over to the Tiger man.
Kieran stood up ignoring the man who was playing Galaga looking up at the God. "Uh yeah sure man" he said nervously he was talking to a God.
"Aha follow me!" He boomed, Kieran followed the god to an empty corridor. "Say my friend, do you and The God of Tigers converse?" Kieran's eyes widened at the statement, his voice failing him for a moment.
"Uh" he swallowed "well uh not much, I've spoken to him twice now" he admitted quietly looking at the god nervously.
"Haha I thought so! So are you an offspring of the Tiger God!" Thors statement made Kieran's eyes widen even more.
"Yo man please be quiet, it's a secret you know?" Thor's eyes widened as he nodded. Kieran nodded back, "uh well I'm not his kid I'm uh his Avatar I guess" Thor looked delighted?
"That is great to know, I love to meet Avatars of Gods!" his voice whisper shouting, Kieran almost laughed at the 7 foot tall man whisper shouting like a kid but held it in.
"Thanks man that's uh that's great" he offered his hand to the god Thor grabbing his forearm in a strong grip pulling him into a hug. Kieran let out a gasp as the man pulled him into a strong embrace squeezing all the air out of his lungs.
Thor pulled back grinning like a loon, Kieran gave a smile back. "Anyway Man of the Tiger I have to say Farewell" Thor said, patting his shoulder and walking off leaving Kieran confused but happy at another great human/god interaction.
"Wait, how did you know about me and the gods' connection?" Kieran asked, his eyes suddenly narrowed and worried who else may know.
Thor stopped and turned to Kieran before speaking "When you summoned those mighty beasts they had a similar magic to that of the Tiger God. Of course very diluted but still there." Thor said as he left.
Kieran nodded 'Huh cool' he thought to himself with a shrug.
'I really am good at conversing with others' he thought to himself walking back to the Galaga man, ready to watch the man play, he was awfully good at the game.
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