Thank you very much to all the people who read and reviewed. I hope you enjoy this installment as well as the last.

I've changed and fleshed out the biology of ghouls just a small amount, compared to canon. As to their responses, most are half-truths, or helped set up by Tony. WARNING, this one contains a fair bit more gore than the last one.

2012

"And what of yourselves?" The senator asked. "My colleagues and I, found citizenship papers for Japan, and Visas for America, however none of them-" "Claim that you must be human to possess such qualifications," Ken interrupted, much to the senator's annoyance.

There were about one hundred people in the courtroom, not including Ken, Touka and Tony, who had sort of hired himself as the couple's lawyer.

"There was an 'Alien certificate of registration no.' but considering that wasn't technically covering extraterrestrials, we left that one to our info here on earth." There was a brief chuckle throughout the room, before it settled down. Evidently, Tony had tutored them as much on laws as humour.

"And what of alien diseases?" Stern asked, "Is there anything we should fear in light of your parents' arrival? And your arrival into this state?"

"No, our natural immune system and cell structure prevent our carrying of diseases entirely." was the response, "Besides, We've been living here, and in regular contact with several thousands of humans for multiple years, which I might add, has all been within the time of our visas."

"Very well." The senator admitted. "Our next inquiry is to have a vial of blood turned over to the american people, to research your-"

"Absolutely not," Touka angrily replied, narrowing her eyes at the senator. "First, you have no right to demand such, at no point in your entire list of laws does it state that visitors of this nation must submit any other information nor samples of their blood, with exception of blood type. Second, while our blood may not cause any diseases, nor deaths, when in contact with human blood, causes significant immune response due to our differing species; Our parents, who were learned biologists on our world tested this when they arrived, to make sure that an inquiry such as this would be settled without difficulty."

"Miss Kaneki," The senator attempted to interject.

"THIRD." She continued, "They also learned that the same cells that trigger regeneration and growth, also trigger the immune response."

"Miss Kaneki." he interrupted, fitting his name, "Our own biologists would like to take a look before any conclusions are made-"

"Senator," Tony interrupted. "Which scientists successfully landed on another planet?"

"Very well." He grumpily acknowledged.

"It says here that one mr. stark is already covering the damages." he looked at Tony, who simply nodded.

"And what will you be doing otherwise, to help clean up the mess that you helped cause?" he asked.

"Glossing over the fact that an extraterrestrial force known as Chitauri, not Kushu, did most of the… mess, we have already offered our services for heavy lifting, as well as providing free coffee for anyone wearing a hardhat until the city is cleaned up." Ken responded.

The senator clenched his jaw a little, before shuffling his papers.

"As for the next issue, we're going to have to register your abilities and species specifics, including destructive abilities, and what you will be able to do for the United states and her allies."

"Objection." Tony called. "That is a civil rights discrimination. By definition, one Ken Kaneki, and Touka Kaneki are a minority group, and as such are exempt from such laws. Minority groups are defined by, and I quote, 'differences in observable characteristics or practices, such as: sex, ethnicity, race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity.'"

"I don't see how the subjects in question fit into any of those roles." The senator countered.

"An inability to consume human food not based on choice but bodily needs, be it mentally diagnosed, physical needs, or allergies is classed as a disability by the law." Tony concluded.

"What part of the typical human diet are you unable to eat."

"Every part." Ken answered. "Our species, when eating typical and non typical earthen foods will have a violent reaction, which includes an inability to digest, sickness, nausea, mild fever, abdominal cramps and occasional vomiting."

"Regardless, we will have to know the dishes and foods that you cannot eat," the senator started, only to be interrupted by Touka.

"Just to make sure, you're asking us to list every single dish, food and condiment that is non-consumable to our species?"

"Yes." was the simple reply.

"Clear your schedule, we'll be here all week." she fridgedly countered.

"Perhaps a list of items that you can ingest," another senator asked.

The married couple looked up at the senator, waiting for him to nod.

"Okay, i hope it won't take all week, as you say." he attempted to joke.

"Coffee, Including the beans, which has the same effect as coffee to humans, as well as relaxing our muscles very slightly." She started.

"Propanol, Which has the same effect as Ethanol to everyone else here, although minimised, due to our immune response. Meats found on our home world, for obvious reasons. Kushu meat, although in large amounts, it can causes a similar effect to mad-cow disease. We can also ingest water in all its forms." she replied.

"How have you been surviving here on earth?" the senator asked, genuinely confused.

"Our parents provided for us in our early years, we were later contacted by SHIELD, who were given the genetic code for some of our edible meats. It lacks variety, but cooking makes up for that."

When the honestly ridiculous court inquiries were over, and the 200 mile journey back to new york was over, they sort of settled back into their daily routine. Clint checked in with them every so often, alongside Natasha, who it turned out had a fractured sternum. The pair helped Ken and Touka with waiting duties when the two of them were out lifting heavy things, as they promised.

Steve also came by a few times, although he was still catching up with modern culture, so he was busy a lot of the time as well.

To nobody's surprise, the Hulk didn't help… well, bruce did, but the hulk was a destructive enough force that even his footprints would leave cracks in the concrete, even just while walking.

Tony, while often busy repairing his own tower, did do a few flybys, occasionally lifting a few things, and notably, according to the news, did some welding. Apparently it surprised people that the billionaire down the block knew such common skills.

As he promised, though, he did pay for a lot of the damages, although it didn't really dent his bank account, it was still seen as goodwill among the people.

The shattered remnants needed more than heroes, Ken thought, and that's exactly what they were. Heroes always fought the good fight, and never stood by and watched the wreckage that their battles had caused. But that was what they were doing.

And the people were noticing.

A lot of the news was actually with them, for once, not something the two were really used to, given their Ghoulish nature. Just like their media attention regarding :Re, it felt good. Good to be the good guys on both sides, for once.

Naturally, they were seen on social media, too. And again they were loved by the people.

When they'd first been recognised, it was a half-skeptical distrust. They were there all along, but nobody knew much about their species, and as such nobody really trusted them beyond making the coffee, Ironically.

After their hearings, and a good part into clearing up the City, they were back with the people. Their will for rebuilding those around them, and not just themselves was something the people quickly began to see from their perspective. Earth, New york, was their home. And they would protect it just as much as they would their own world.

When the interviews aired, and more detail was found, it was no surprise.

A few months went by, and the builders, carpenters and engineers went away. A few more, and everything seemed to be back to normal. Tony disappeared again, his mansion was blown up, and a few talks with pepper had her on a jet to the newly redubbed Avengers Tower.

A few days later, yet again, Tony turned up, saving the staff of Air force One, only to disappear yet again. Honestly, it was quite frustrating having their friend be dead, then not be dead, then vanish, then reappear, saving the president, then gone again for another two days.

It was a long week.

2014

A year later, and the world simply felt… normal. Nothing special, with exception of the odd fan or two entering the shop. They'd seen more weird things on tuesdays, and that was saying something. Tuesday was the most normal day of the week, everyone was awake, no-one hated tuesdays, as monday was always the worse. They worked weekends, so they didn't really have an opinion on that case, but nevertheless, Tuesday was normal, and therefore, tuesday was good.

And then SHIELD branded Steve Rogers a fugitive.

Ken and Touka wanted in. They needed to know what was going on.

The phones wouldn't work, Their so-called untraceable calls were routed through SHIELD, which meant they were now exactly the opposite.

Two days, and nothing, not the hint of a contact, nothing.

And then Steve and Natasha turned up at their door, Rustled, dishevelled, dirty, and burned. "I'm sorry about this, but we need a place to lay low." Steve said.

"Everyone we know is trying to kill us." Natasha continued.

"Not everyone." Ken said, and let them in.

"The shower is yours," Ken said, opening the first door on the left. "Spare rooms on the right. I'll get you some coffee," he nodded to Touka, and she took over. "I'll get you some fresh clothes."

"Dibs," Natasha mumbled to Steve, who smiled faintly in response.

"Good to see you again," Touka mused, opening the couple's room, and getting out a set of clean clothes.

"Yeah," Natasha agreed, taking the clothes. "Never heard of these guys." She said, looking at the band t-shirt she was holding.

"Good, It'll help you blend in." she said, before playfully pushing the other girl towards the shower. "I'm sure you enjoy dirty hair as much as I do."

She sighed, a small half-smile on her lips, as she turned to Steve, a faint smile on him, too.

A short second of thinking later, Touka snapped her fingers, and moved to a completely different room, grabbing a shirt and pants that looked large, even for Steve.

At his inquisitive look, she simply shrugged. "Ken's clothes wouldn't fit you, and mine definitely won't."

When Natasha descended the stairs in the quaint little Coffee shop known as :Re, she didn't expect to see Tony stark on the Ground floor, Especially since it was evening.

"When did Tony get here?" She asked.

"Hm?" he asked, coffee in hand. "Oh, I've been here since closing time. Still the best Coffee in this city, by the way.

After Steve had joined them, just a scant few minutes later, Natasha spole up: "So the question is, who at SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike."

"Pierce." at the confused looks of the three in front of him, Steve elaborated.

"Current Director of SHIELD. Took over after Fury died."

"Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world." Natasha continued.

"He's not working alone," Tony said, "No way SHIELD would brand the perfect american soldier a traitor without half of the organisation rebelling."

"Besides," Steve spoke up. "Zola's algorithm was on the Lemurian Star."

"So was Jasper Sitwell." Natasha stated.

There was a brief glance between them, before Steve started brainstorming. "So the real question is, how do the two most wanted people in America kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight."

"You're assuming that we don't have your backs." Ken said, crossing his arms. "We're in this together, we need to know if we can trust SHIELD, hell, the only reason we have food security is because of them."

"Aside from us, they're the only ones protecting this world. And if I don't know why they just branded their best soldier a traitor, you can be damn sure I'm going to help you find out."

Steve and Natasha smiled, and nodded. Tomorrow would be a tough day, but for now they had to plan.

A good night's sleep later, and they were on their way to DC, back to the triskelion.

Of course, they were on Tony's private jet, so the journey would probably only take twenty minutes.

Honestly, the full avengers suits were a little over the top, but the point remained, If the world saw them, they needed the publicity. And if they didn't, well, hopefully, it wouldn't matter.

Tony was topping off his second generation suitcase suit, and Steve was putting a long coat over his uniform, when they landed.

"So, I was thinking, is there any way that you could take over the cloning of our foods?" Ken asked. "Well, I did technically invent the methods, it wouldn't be too hard."

"Thanks," he said, rolling his shoulders a little. "Nice car by the way." he continued, looking at the Rolls Royce on the runway.

"You want one?" Tony half-jokingly asked.

"Wasn't christmas five months ago?" Tony simply looked at him and snorted slightly.

"No, we don't really drive anywhere, maybe in the future."

In all honesty, the drive was a little boring. A little smalltalk here and there, but at least the leather seats were nice.

That and the car came with Jarvis installed, which was a surprise. In retrospect, it was sort of expected, considering the car belonged to Tony stark, but the point was that Jarvis made the mission exceptionally easy, he'd hacked into SHIELD's servers and found Sitwell's schedule in just four minutes.

When they got there, Sitwell had just exited the building. They were slightly late, due to DC traffic, but thankfully he was talking with the annoying senator they had to deal with almost two years ago.

One lipreading by Touka later, and they confirmed that he was HYDRA. They already knew that remnants of the organisation isation were still at large, considering that one of said remnants had taken Loki's sceptre, but having people that high up in the system was worrying. At least it explained why the senator was such a massive dick.

When they asked, how Touka learned to lip read her only response was a shrug, and saying that she was bored one day.

Ghouls had exceptional senses, sight included, so it honestly wasn't overly difficult for her, and she WAS a quick learner, despite almost failing high-school. She just really hates classical literature. That and she never had a formal education until said high-school.

Regardless, they had their target, and Natasha quickly prepped her laser sight onto Sitwell's tie, while Steve called him.

"Yes sir?" Sitwell asked. Thinking that it was Alexander Pierce's number.

"Look at your tie." Steve simply said. When he did, he started looking around frantically.

"You see the Rolls-Royce a half,block down?" He asked, and Sitwell simply nodded. "Get in it, we're going to have a talk." Again, he nodded, and closed the phone, half walking half jogging, laser still affixed to his tie, although Natasha occasionally aimed at his crotch when he was checking that it was still there. He noticeable swallowed when that happened.

A short drive later, and they all got out, and walked into a nearby building, and onto the roof, easily twenty stories up.

The interrogation wasn't started as you'd expect it. There was no beating people up, not further if any kind. When they got to the rooftop, they sat him down on a spare chair in front of Touka. "Tell us about Zola's algorithm," Steve started.

"I've never heard of it." He answered, sweat already beading down his forehead, as he was forced to stare at the petite girl in front of him.

Her eyes narrowed, and he gulped.

"You're going to tell us about the algorithm." Steve simply said. He'd only been glared at by Touka once before, and In All honesty, it was one of the few things that made him feel incredibly small. Even after the experiment, that was the only time he'd felt completely helpless.

"I don't know about it." He continued, And Touka's eyes narrowed further.

Her pupils dilated, and her irises turned red, and Sitwell gulped again. The change continued to her sclera, turning the white to black, red cracks running further past her eyes and onto the side of her face and temples.

He held his silence, which was admirable, considering the outright hostility in that glare, only for the petite girl to pick him up by the neck, one handed, walk a few steps and toss him over the rooftop.

A few seconds passed of him screaming, while Steve and Natasha discussed some girl from accounting called Lilian.

Another second passed, and Tony flew over them, dropping Sitwell on the other half of the rooftop, allowing him to roll a few steps, before stopping the agent with his boot.

Sitwell clambered to sit up and correct his glasses, and just moments after he'd taken his hands away from his face, there was a black and red needle-sharp tentacle in front of his face. He didn't have to ask to know that the tendril belonged to Ken Kaneki.

And oh god it was moving closer.

"I'll tell you, please," he screamed, scrabbling backwards into Tony's legs.

The tentacle froze, and slowly split into three, correcting his glasses, before retreating into Ken's back, his blood red eye staring back at him.

"Zola's algorithm is a program, for choosing Insight's targets."

"What targets," Steve asked, only for Sitwell to almost hysterically interrupt.

"You. All of you, Bruce banner, Stephen strange, the other secretary of defence. Anyone who is a threat to hydra, past present or future."

"How could it know," Steve asked angrily, squatting down in front of him.

"How could it not know? Sitwell asked rhetorically, only for Tony to continue his train of thought.

"Digitisation. Cameras, recordings, social media. Everyone's lives are out in the open For everyone else to see."

"Exactly," Sitwell responded. "The world is an open book, Zola simply taught hydra how to read it." He stood up, and continued. "Zola's algorithm reads people's past to predict their future."

"What then" Steve asked, only for Tony to interrupt before Sitwell could continue.

"Project Insight." He started. "Eliminate a thousand targets a minute, that's what Fury said, right?"

"The Insight helicarriers will scratch people off the list, a few million at a time."

"Insight is launching In a little more than sixteen hours," Natasha said, "we can. Use his DNA scans to go straight to project Insight's launch bays."

"Or, we could go there, and smash straight through the doors, and disable them the hard way. Destroy the PID systems or gyroscopes, and they'll simply tip over." Tony said.

"I prefer that plan," Ken spoke up. "Besides, the sooner we get there, the sooner we can let Sitwell out of the trunk."

It's a large trunk, I'm sure he'll be fine," Touka argued, only for a muffled shouting of "I'm not fine" to be hard from the trunk. "I didn't hear anything, did you?" She asked, rubbing her ear slightly.

Barely two seconds after Touka finished talking, a loud 'thunk' was heard, before a fist struck the window with incredible power.

Tony immediately stomped on the brakes, causing the fist, as well as the person attached to it to go flying, stopping himself with his robotic arm, scraping four long gauges into the concrete.

Immediately Tony flipped a switch, and pressed his thumb on a scanner, causing a suit to fold out of his seat and onto his body. During the process, the steering wheel shifted to the captain's side, and two pedals flipped down by his feet. Not needing another hint, Steve immediately took the wheel, and powered forward, towards the figure.

Before he could slam into him however, he jumped over the car, grabbed onto the roof, and fired at it.

The bullets pinged off harmlessly, and Steve drove over to the nearest exit. Seconds later they were rear-ended by a large truck,sending the metal armed mad onto the hood of the car, where he started punching the windshield again.

Another punch, and he simply ripped the steering wheel out of the car, straight through the shattered glass.

Steve stepped on the brake again, and Tony triggered the locks of the car, allowing them to exit, albeit at highway speeds.

At the second braking, the soldier jumped from Tony's car, and onto the bonnet of the other.

Almost immediately after they were done exiting the car, they could see the solder, already ready for combat, wielding a grenade launcher. Steve quickly pushed Natasha out of the way, and took the hit on his shield, sending him flying off of the highway.

Just after that, there was immediately suppressive fire, pinning Natasha down, although Ken Touka and Tony were all able to move freely.

Tony jumped over his now previously favourite car, and fired his repulsors, taking out two enemies, Ken and Touka both weaved around the car, Touka firing her Kagune at the enemies, her crystals slicing through the SWAT gear with ease.

Ken jumped forwards using his signature slam, taking out two more goons, before swiping his tentacles to the right, after the metal armed man.

He jumped over the tentacles, and fired a few shots from his sidearm, only for them to bounce off Kaneki's skin harmlessly.

Seeing the ineffectiveness of his weapon, he brought the grenade launcher back up, and, not even hesitating due to his closeness, fired two shots at ken.

Ken swatted one away with his Kagune, detonating the shell, and dodged the other, at the stinging pain, and charred scales on his extra limb.

Bullets, knives and swords wouldn't hurt them, but shockwaves and fire could still do damage.

That's when one of the remaining goons brought out a minigun, and started firing at Tony. Even his suit would have trouble against sustained armour piercing fire, so he quickly spiraled upwards, and fired a few repulsor blasts down at the gunner, killing him after a few shots.

While nowhere near as good as Kishou Arima, The man, now known as the winter soldier, thanks to Natasha having informed them of his name, was holding his own. Most of his moves were simply dodging Ken and Touka's attacks, while Tony dealt with the remaining goons, however he was managing to slip in a few punches with his metal arm.

Tony, noticing the news chopper up above them, quickly dealt with the last one non-lethally, knocking him out, before flying towards the soldier, drop kicking him in the chest.

A drop kick is probably one of the most powerful forces the human body can exert, one by a regular, average man or woman could easily break several ribs, and even cause heart failure in some people. A supersolder would most likely pulverise a ribcage, and snap a spine in a single kick. When you add a 100 kilo metal suit to the mix, and then add another fifty kilometres an hour to the speedometer, you have an attack that would almost instantly crush the torsos of even the strongest, hardest trained people in the world. The fact that the winter soldier only took five seconds to stand up, instead of the half second he did when ken had managed a lucky hit was a testament to his strength.

When he kept fighting beyond that, grunts of pain whenever he moved, was also an incredible feat. a few moments later, however, when the last of the additional goons that were apparently late to the party had also been dealt with, the man decided that enough was enough, and decided to book it.

Steve, having recovered from his bus-travelling adventure, quickly engaged the soldier, not wanting to allow him to get away.

A few blows between them later, and his mask was pulled off. Steve hesitated, and the winter soldier got away.

Touka quickly jumped ahead, wanting to quite literally sniff him out, but before she could, a number of black vans and SUVs intervened, cutting off the path with the smell of gasoline, and burned rubber.

Seconds after, roughly forty people in riot gear jumped out, and started pointing guns at them. "GET DOWN!" and "HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEAD!" were among the few epitaphs that were yelled.

"Do it guys," Tony said. "That chopper is with them, it only filmed us doing the destruction."

A few seconds of deliberation later, and they did as asked, retracting their limbs, and dropping their weapons. In Tony's case, he simply powered down his repulsors and extra weapons for the moment.

A moment later, and they were in an APC, the only one without heavy steel clamps around their limbs being Natasha, who had unfortunately been shot during the fight.

"It was Bucky." Steve mumbled, "I saw him, and he didn't even know me."

"The legend of the winter soldier is just as old as you are," Natasha mumbled, "I wouldn't be surprised if they kept him on ice just like you."

"Listen." Ken said, looking towards the guards, "If we don't stabilise her wounds, she could bleed out."

The guard quickly brought out some strange mix between a baton and cattleprod, and, just as ken was about to say that such a device wouldn't do much to a ghoul, the guard slammed it into their friend, kicking them in the face a half-second later, knocking him out.

The guard rapidly removed their helmet, revielling agent Hill, surprisingly actually from SHIELD, despite their now likely enemy status. Admittedly, Half the avengers just had an unsolicited battle right in the middle of the capital of America.

"Ugh, that thing was squeezing my brain." she mumbled,

"I guess that means we can escape now." Tony said, his helmet reengaging. Almost instantly, all of them snapped their restraints, Tony and Steve simply pulled them apart, while Ken and Touka brought out their kagunes and sliced them to pieces.

The moment the cars stopped, Hill took out some type of torch shaped device, and started cutting away at the floor, and slicing right through the concrete and sewer systems below.

Just ten seconds later, they were completely vanished.

After a brief discussion regarding how he was alive, and why they didn't know about it, they were sat in a briefing room.

"This man declined the nobel peace prize. Said that it wasn't an achievement, but a responsibility." Fury put down the picture of Alexander pierce. "You see, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."

"We have to stop the launch, you're just holding us back from it at this point, we already know where and when." Ken said.

"Or, you could do it the stealth way." Fury said, pulling out a briefcase, revealing three data-chips.

"And the stealth way is replacing the targeting systems." Tony muttered. "This is almost as bad as Staine was."

"These aren't the originals," Fury said. "They won't take out every hydra agent, and spare civilians, Hell, they won't even aim at any people."

Tony looked up for a moment at Fury, before he continued.

"I already knew that you'd want all of SHIELD taken out, rebuilt completely from scratch. These chips will ensure that the helicarriers will target each other, nothing more nothing less."

"I'm guessing we need all three." Ken mused.

"You need to do it before the carriers reach 3000 feet, or just under one kilometer. If they reach that height without the chips in, we've already lost."

"Let's go." Tony said. Flipping his helmet up.

Moments later, they were out of the hovel, and on their way to the Triskelion.

They had divided themselves into teams. Natasha would infiltrate, using a biopolymer illusion cloth, Otherwise known as fancy makeup and good acting, Tony would knock out their systems with help from Jarvis, and would intervene if the Carriers managed to launch. Steve and the Kanekis would make their way through the base, brief the non-hydra staff via the intercom and simply smash through security, until they got to the carriers.

Natasha was already in, having taken control of the sole female council member. She was already meeting with Pierce. It wouldn't take long for the main group to get into the building, especially since Steve had just punched the doorman's lights out in a single blow.

An elevator ride later, and they were in, weapons, well, limbs facing towards the lone techie that just unlocked the door. They were originally going to smash the door in, hence why Ken's kagune was out, however when the doorman unlocked it, he simply decided to keep it there for intimidation purposes.

A brief walk to the PA system, and they were golden. Steve had grabbed his old uniform from a museum on the way, albeit which museum, they didn't really pay attention to, so with the Kanekis' skins, and Steve's clothes, they were all bulletproof. And, ruthless as hydra was, they wouldn't destroy one of their central command units. Not because of the people, but because of the tech that was there, tech which would be useful for launching Insight.

No doubt there was a backup somewhere, or even just manual controls on the ships, but the point still stood.

"Attention all SHIELD agents, This is Steve Rogers. You've heard a lot about me over the last few days, and a lot about the other avengers, how we were arrested, and taken away." he paused for a moment, sighing, before continuing.

"Some of you were even responsible for arresting us. But i think it's time you know the truth. SHIELD is not what we thought it was, it's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader. STRIKE and Insight crew are hydra as well, I don't know how many more, but I know that they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you." he paused again, this time it was definitely for dramatic effect. Soldier or not, Steve could certainly hold a speech.

"They almost have what they want. absolute control. They shot Nick Fury, and it won't end there. If you launch those helicarriers today, hydra will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way, unless we stop them. I know that I'm asking a lot, WE are asking a lot, but the price of freedom is high, always have been… it's a price that we're all willing to pay. And if we're the only ones, then so be it, but i'm willing to bet we're not."

"Control room is refusing to launch" came Tony's voice over the comm. "Looks like they like you, cap."

A moment later, they heard a slight rumble, and Tony's voice came over the comms again. "Looks like a gunfight broke out, Carriers are launching. I can't shut 'em down."

"Make your way to the highest one, we've got the others covered." Ken said. He nodded to Steve, and jumped to the next carrier over, Touka following a scant few moments later.

The flight was rather quaint, considering that they were about to take out probably the largest thing they had ever tangled with. Yes, it was technically not alive, but it was the thought that counted.

When their short flight inevitably came to an end, they saw a surprisingly quite large amount of goons before them. "Aww, they brought us a present." Touka said, dropping her wings, as the mooks started shooting.

She tucked into a spiral pattern, crystallizing her Kagune, and and firing shards out of the mass. Downing six of the enemy soldiers before the two of them even landed.

Ken, not really caring about destruction, if he was being honest, simply tucked his Kagune around himself, not wanting to ruin his uniform even further, and flooded an extra two tentacles out slapping their guns aside, and impaling them. A few more shots to the back, and he simply flung the two he'd impaled at the two that were shooting. Four down, about thirty to go. Technically basic maths… he'd take the punchline at this point, since his interest had ended the moment they'd crushed as easily as back in their old world. At least the Chitauri had something interesting to fight.

"Bored already?" he asked his wife, sho moments ago had landed atop another black-clad goon, crushing his body to a pulp.

"I think i got blood in my boot." She complained, shaking the offending piece of footwear, a few droplets spilling out.

The mooks around them, having another group of ten to replace the nine they had lost, quickly revitalised their Courage,bringing their guns up, and preparing to fire at the two again.

"You do understand that we're bulletproof, yes?" Ken asked. Only to be drowned out by gunfire a half-second later. Quickly, still not wanting his outfit to be ruined, he jumped over their arc of fire, landing amongst them, bashing one brave soul's knife aside, slamming it into another's sternum, before pulling that guy's head off, and beating the first with it. The fact that his eyes popped out of his skull, and his neck crumpled to a negative length was enough of a sign that he was dead.

He elbowed another, and felt ribs break, seeing the man collapse from the corner of his eye, he grabbed his gun, shooting two of his friends in the face, the bullets weren't armour piercing, he concluded, after they failed to do more than scare the two guards he'd just shot, so he simply threw the rifle into one of them, knocking him or her out. He honestly didn't really care.

He tore an arm off the guy that was kneeling beside him, sternum and ribs still broken, and tore his arm off, beating another guy with it, snapping his neck, and the bone within the arm, making the latter useless.

The former still had use, however, ashe could use a person as a weapon many different ways. Specifically the Ulna and Radius in the forearms worked excellently as makeshift knives. He'd discovered this when he fought Jason, and used one of the larger man's bones as a torture device, and later as a toothpick, only to realise that it was adding more material than removing.

Discarding that train of thought, he simply grabbed the man's forearms, tore out all four bones, making sure to snap them to a sharpish point on the way out, and threw them at another three of his friends. The last, he tossed to Touka, who, having used a man's ribs as a similar weapon, and having managed to break her own discount dagger on a very scared man's forehead.

"Thanks," she said, sending him a blood-covered smile, Kakugan shining red, as she stabbed the poor fellow she had been holding up.

Quite bravely, a man managed to jump onto her back, most likely since she wasn't really paying attention, however she quickly disabused the man of the idea that it'd be an effective tactic, By deploying her kagune straight through the man's torso.

The blood spray was quite spectacular, The man, having lost the nerve connection to his arms, started to slide off, the rest of him being sliced into thirds when it came into contact with the plasma-like kagune.

"Cross?" she questioned, looking at a charging agent, who pulled out a rather wicked looking sword.

"No, it's his cousin, the crazy one, Ken said, breaking some poor sap's neck, skull, clavicles, and probably scapula. And now both ghouls understood what happens when you twist someone's head around six times by swinging them into the tailfin of a quinjet.

"Look the same," she mused, as she used her kagune to saw five people in half at the waist, sending the last off the edge of the carrier and into the turbine on the side. Both decided that they would prefer not dying by such a method.

"Ouch." Ken mused, ducking the swing from Discount Cross' knife. On second thought, the man did look a lot more muscular than the specialist that occasionally stopped for coffee at their shop.

Having had enough of the literal bloodbath, Ken quickly dispatched the stab-happy HYDRA agent, kicking him in the balls and then kicking his head off.

Absentmindedly, he caught the head, tossing it up and down a time or two, before being glared at by his wife.

"We don't play with our food." he put his hand behind his neck, laughing a little, and threw the now crossed out cross cranium down the turbine.

Obviously, Tony knew the layout of the Carrier better than them, since he quickly called. "Alpha locked."

"On my way there." Steve replied.

"I'll deal with strays," Tony stated.

"Fuck it, we'll tear through the hull." Touka said, deploying her kagune, and beginning to rip at the asphalt, Ken quickly joining her. Two floors and twenty seconds later, they ran into another squad of goons, although it was only seven this time.

Another run of the mill disemboweling, and and the squad was dealt with. Although they were having trouble imagining how they could possibly get more red, another floor and another squad quickly taught their imagination how exactly that could happen.

When they finally reached their destination, they practically had giblets where they definitely didn't want them. Touka had removed two teeth from her bra, and Ken had what he was pretty sure was half an eyeball stuck down the back of his legwear. How it got there, considering the long overcoat his uniform came with, he really didn't want to know.

Touka quickly switched the targeting board out with the one they'd been carrying, Ken calling "Beta Locked" into the radio.

"Trouble at three." Steve called, "Winter soldier."

Immediately, Ken and Touka ran over the the edge of the glass dome they were in, looking at Steve, fighting the apparently healed Bucky Barnes in hand-to hand. Agreeing to help him out, Touka quickly shattered the glass with her crystals, and launched herself towards the opposing carrier.

Ken, not having the ability to fly, grappled onto the the underside of the carrier he was on, crawling with increasing speed towards the edge, before leaping towards the final carrier.

Both, for a brief very, very moment, were thankful that the carriers' anti-air didn't target via object mass, and instead, heat signature.

Then the guns started pointing at them anyway. Touka was a natural at using her wings, and had no doubt that she'd make it, however Ken barely had any arial control, and had to tank the first few shots, quickly folding his Kagune into a ball-like shape, and dropping to the water below like a stone.

Two minutes later, the Carriers fired on each other. And two minutes later again, Ken could see Steve fall from the wreckage, Bucky still standing in the top, Touka beside him.

Two months later, and Touka's choice to save Bucky was already paying off.

While SHIELD was destroyed, so was HYDRA, and the two had a source of food again, thanks to Tony.

They had a list of places HYDRA was hiding, and a list of personnel they were after.

And they had one last thing. Steve's friend was starting to remember himself.

It'd take months more, possibly even years, but they were confident that it was possible, that the man behind the assassin wasn't as broken as they previously thought. Every other day, they'd take him out to museums, bring him little parts of his past, and slowly restore hope in his future. They'd learned a lot about the mental programming hidden within him, and had slowly been unravelling it. If they had their way, Bucky would never again be used as a weapon.

Another three months, and Bucky remembered something that gave him one of the trueest feeling of fear he'd ever experienced. He'd remembered two executions he'd performed on the side of a road.

Two people, parents of one of his now best friends, Howard and Maria Stark.

He had to make a choice.

I glossed over Iron man 3, and Thor 2, but in all honesty, they don't need to be told in this story, and getting out these two characters for other's individual stories seemed a bit too much. However with DC only 180 or so miles away from NY, the traveling in this seemed fairly doable.

To those not In The know, a PID system is usually used to stabilise and correct, so on a helicarriers, it'd be the system that keeps the entire thing level. If one engine fails, it tells the system that it needs to compensate for that loss.

I can conclusively say that there are at least 4 more chapters after this one. I've worked out the main plot throughout 4, 5 and 6, however 3 is still a bit illusive. I'll try and write a chapter or so every month. You should see this done before A4 comes out.

Quick note from DEC 7th. Next update might be 4 weeks instead of 3. PoE 3.5 launch is this weekend, and I usually write the entirety of Sunday, The week after that, I've got some finals, and then guests for christmas. I'll try to write up most of it next sunday, and then finish it before the guests get here, however that isn't certain.