March 15th, 2014
All throughout the world, the news was sent out. An earthquake in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. With a magnitude of 9.1, it devastated the city. Images of the city's destruction spread across the world. The most prominent of which was the destroyed image of the city's most famous landmark. The fallen 98-foot statue of Jesus Christ the Redeemer, resting on the side of the mountain it once rested on, arms destroyed by the fall. Buildings throughout the city were now rubble. The death toll rose and rose, leaving the entire city in terror and despair.
Then the other reports began to pour in.
At first, it was assumed by officials on the scene that the civilians and personnel on the ground were simply shaken. Then it seemed possible that some sort of chemical in the air was causing hallucinations. Until the footage came in.
A man in shorts and sandals running down a destroyed city street, screaming in terror. Behind him, three doglike figures came from the smoke.
Wolves. Wolves the size of small cars. The massive beings snarled, rushing after him. Like some sick parody of a nature documentary, they ran towards the man. As he screamed in terror, he missed the trap until it was too late.
A fourth wolf leaped from a side alley, having lied in wait as its brethren chased their prey into its trap. He hopped onto the escaping man, teeth digging in to slash into the poor man's jugular. As he bled out on the concrete, the other wolves rushed in blood flying.
It was the first such incident. It was not the last.
Earlier that day
Director Maria Hill of BRIDGE
In her new office in the rebuilt Triskelion, Maria Hill had been given several things. With the aid of Stark Industries, her office was even larger than before, with upgraded technology throughout. In the center of the room, a single massive Diamondhead crystal stood on a pedestal, the last surviving remnant of the crystal mountain that had stopped the three Insight Helicarriers from taking off. With the help of some sonic cannons, the mountain had been broken up into pieces and carted off to be stored, studied, and used for later. But this piece, Dial had reshaped just for Maria, including a small surprise within. It had been a nice gift, especially with the light entering the windows and catching it in just the right way causing light to bend into multiple directions.
The Director was wearing a blue dress for her office work, though her combat uniform was currently resting in a bag on her desk as a bunch of catoms.
Maria sat at her desk as Sam Wilson walked into the room. He was wearing a nice red button up shirt with some buttons undone. The man known as Falcon walked up to Maria's desk with two bags in his hand. He passed one to Maria, who took it with a grateful smile.
"Thanks, Sam. You have any trouble with security?"
"Nah," he took a seat, opening his own bag. "I did get surprised when someone asked me to sign an autograph."
Maria blinked. "Wait, really?"
"Yep," Sam took out a burger from his bag, opening it up. "I think the guy was new or something."
"Well, we did have to hire a lot of people. It's been slow since we want to be careful about who we pick, but there's been a bunch of new blood."
"Huh," Sam took a bite out of his burger. "Sounds like things are going well."
"Sort of," Maria opened her own burger and sighed happily at the smell of fast food. She hadn't eaten in a while, more focused on finishing her paperwork until Sam called in to ask her if she wanted lunch. "I've been getting calls from Russia that are a bit worrying. HYDRA is still missing somehow, Hank Pym refuses to talk to us, and the US government is starting to worry me. Thankfully, Wakanda has been very helpful. Apparently, they managed to recover a portion of their vibranium and want to talk to us about a deal."
"Sounds cool," Sam grabbed a couple of fries out of his bag. "How about you, you okay?"
"I'm all right," Maria shrugged. "It's weird. Things are both easier and harder than my last job. I delegate a lot, so that's easier, and Tony's team hooked us up with a lot of tech to help us. But we have a lot of catch up to do. Regaining the public's trust after HYDRA, deciding what to do with all the new superhumans and animals we've found. So yeah, I'm good. Just still adjusting. You?"
"I'm good," Sam took a bite of his food, enjoying his burger. After a long silence, he looked up at Maria, who was giving him an odd smile. "What?"
"You're good?"
"Yeah, I'm good. What's wrong with that?"
"Sam, is that really all that is going in your life? You're 'good'?"
He stared at her for a moment before sighing. "I mean, yeah. Mostly. Been having some issues with the team."
"What kind of issues?"
Sam took a bite of his sandwich to think. "...Dial and Bucky, mostly. And for different reasons," when Maria simply waved for him to continue, he began to explain. "They aren't great at following orders, but for different reasons. With Bucky, I think it's because of both his background and the fact he just doesn't respect me. It's not like he ignores my orders at all. If they make sense to him, he'll listen. But the fact is, we both know I was only given a command for publicity. In terms of ability, experience, and strength, he'd prefer Cap in charge, and the fact it's me pisses him off." Sam scowled. "Annoying bastard."
"And Dial?" Maria asked calmly.
"Dial is on the other end. I don't think he even knows how frustrating he is. He's not a soldier, he's not used to following orders. And I can't forget that sometimes the guy I gave orders to can just suddenly go from a kid to an overblown WrestleMania jackass," Sam rubbed his chin. "I also can't forget that he's a good hero, but he isn't disciplined. He doesn't follow the letter of orders because he has no idea how important that is. And I'm worried about the fact he still goes out to fight crime without telling anyone or updating them. All he needs is one night alone with some idiot with a machine gun and good aim, one moment where his armor isn't up and he's not in alien form..." Sam shook his head. "Still, at least we have a new name. 'Reserve Avengers' was getting on my nerves."
Maria nodded and opened her mouth to say something.
That's when their ID cards began to beep.
Giving each other a shocked look, they quickly reached for them, Sam grabbing his out of his pocket, Maria from a drawer in her desk. At the same time, Maria's ID card linked up with her electronic desk and brought up a hologram.
"Major earthquake in Rio De Janeiro," she said quickly. "Get in the armor."
"On my way," Sam called back, already halfway to the door.
Earlier that day
Tony Stark/Iron Man
Tony Stark was good at a lot of things. From engineering, to coding, to business, he'd mastered them all. Idiots claimed he was nothing but an arrogant playboy. Which he was for most of his life, the playboy part disappearing since he got together with Pepper. But the fact was, Tony was a guy with a lot of skills.
And he could throw a hell of a party.
"Okay, have the caterers show up at twelve," Tony said as he walked around the large room in the center set up for people to hang out. He was speaking to an assistant he didn't know the name of, some girl Pepper had hired to help with this. "And that's noon, got it?"
"Yes sir," she said dutifully.
"All right, get out of here," the girl scurried off, and Tony looked around.
The whole room was full of people setting up for the party, all to celebrate the official building of the New Avengers, the return of Thor, and the beating of HYDRA (though the jury was technically out on the last one). Food from all over the world was coming, including a chef from Norway who would be cooking a boar in person just for occasion, alcohol ranging from wine coolers to the sort of stuff that would make Thor call for another. Of course, for the non-alcoholic drinkers, a milkshake bar and smoothie maker were set up, manned by an expert in the craft. A giant TV was set up in the center of it for a Smash Brothers tournament, some other party games all around, and the new pool at one side of the room was being cleaned up and set up with toys, while the speakers were being set up by Stark Industries employees.
Tony smirked. Say a lot about him, but he threw a hell of a par-
Suddenly, his ID card began to beep. Tony's good mode vanished.
"Jarvis?"
"It's an earthquake in Rio, sir," Jarvis said immediately.
Tony frowned. "Why was the emergency alert sent straight to my card?"
The ID cards were for priority alerts only. While an earthquake was a tragic event, it fell under search and rescue, cleaning up in the aftermath. An alert would get to him, sure, but this was different. Priority meant something was ongoing.
For search and rescue, Tony would bring in a suit made just for finding signs of people and clearing rubble. For priority, he'd bring his heavy artillery, the sort of stuff he'd made to combat Thor if need be.
"There are reports of ongoing attacks in Rio," Jarvis explained as Tony walked towards the balcony. "Rumors of monsters."
"Then send me Excalibur," Tony opened the doors of the balcony and stepped out.
"Sir, I must remind that safety protocol is to wait until the armor arrives before stepping into it-"
"But that isn't any fun," Tony snarked, going to the railing and hopping over it without a thought.
"Of course, sir. Why be safe when you can be fun?" Jarvis said with blithering, yet somehow warm, sarcasm.
As Tony dropped and a red missile flew to intercept him, Tony let out a whoop of joy.
Moments after the alert was sent