New York-

It had happened so suddenly that no one had even realized that anything was wrong. Certainly not Ichigo or her friends. And they were more in tune to the flux of energies in the world around them than most people could ever say that they were in their whole damned lifetimes.

They had been at a restaurant, celebrating Uryu and Chad's success in finally getting their dream jobs. Chad had just signed a contract with a big music company located in New York- and had flown them all out to celebrate with him. And Uryu had managed to finally get a job at a local hospital in Japan after working his ass off for the past three years to graduate from collage early so that he could get a job in his father's hospital as a trauma surgeon.

One would think that after all of their 'teenage' adventures in the Soul Society, and everywhere else that the guy would have had enough of being elbow deep in blood and organs and other unsavory things. But whatever.

It took a special kind of person to want to continue being elbow deep in shit and still manage to want to help people right?

So anyways, there they were, waiting on their orders to finally reach them while they all talked and laughed about some of their achievement's, and misadventures- when all of a sudden Ichigo felt something akin to a chill shoot down her spine.

It was subtle enough not to be overly worrisome at first, that that quickly changed when they suddenly heard panicked screaming, the squeal of tires as cars suddenly put on their brakes, and the ground itself began to tremble mere seconds before the large glass window that Ichigo and the others were sitting about twenty or so feet away from, burst inward, raining shards of sharp glass down on the other people in the restaurant.

Causing people to hit the floor screaming in fear all over the place.

Uryu managed to grab Orihime and hit the floor as Chad had grabbed her and twisted his body around to protect her and the others from as much of the shattered glass as possible. And once they were all no longer in threat of glass showers, Ichigo made a low growling sound in the back of her throat and started swearing a blue streak.

If the current utter pandemonium both outside on the streets and inside of the restaurant weren't so damn frightening, then the fact that Ichigo was swearing to kill someone, or something with her 'killy thingy' (her pet name for her zanbaktou when she was freaking out so badly that she couldn't actually recall the damn thing's name) might have been considered pretty comical.

Finally though, she calmed down enough to stop swearing and started barking out orders like she usually did.

"Chad, Orihime, Uryu- see what you can do about helping everyone injured by the glass. Some of them might be cut up pretty badly and need immediate medical assistance. I'm going to go see what the hell is going on outside. I want you three to come find me when you're done here, understand?"

The three nodded their heads silently, their expressions grim as they each turned to everyone else still huddled on the floor and began to go and check on them and treat their injuries while Ichigo wasted no time at all in slipping out through the broken window and took a moment to see which direction everyone was running from before taking off.

She must have run several blocks away from where she had originally left the others before finally finding the source of the problem that was scaring the shit out of everyone. And what a problem it was.

There in the sky, far, far, far above the earth was a huge gaping black hole that reminded her of the pure darkness of Hueco Mundo. It was...horrifying to see something so malicious and evil looking in the sky over such a nice and relatively peaceful city.

"No..." Ichigo whispered to herself as she quickly looked around, for what exactly she wasn't sure. All she knew was that this city was, as far as she could sense- completely devoid of Soul Reapers, and it's people would be easy pickings for whatever was on the other side of the dark hole.

She may not have the power to close the hole. But she knew without a doubt that she had to protect the people here. Finally spotting the flashing lights of emergency vehicles a little ways away, she knew that a barricade would have been set up by the authorities and an evacuation point established.

Good.

Though it wasn't quite good enough.

Normal humans had no concept of the horrors that existed beyond the darkness. Sure they could use their imaginations and imagine what lay beyond it, but they would never have any true concept of it. And without that, they would never know how to protect themselves from it.

Ichigo had seen, known and fought against it since she was fourteen years old. She knew what lay beyond the gaping hole and what fate would rain down on this peaceful city and it's people if she didn't hurry. Rushing to the police barricade, she saw a tall man with blond hair telling the authorities to evacuate everyone and was about to leave so that the police could do the task that he had told them to do when he finally seemed to notice her and called out, "Run away kid! It's dangerous- Get far away from here!"

However she payed his warning no mind and simply brushed past the police vehicles and the blond and didn't even stop or pause when the man cussed at her and made to grab her but suddenly had to throw his arms up to shield his eyes as she wrapped her hand around her Shinigami badge and let her spirit energy wrap around her like a protective cloak.

The vibrant, shimmering blue of her energy dancing along her skin, lighting it up so that her very being glowed and pulsed with power.

There was a swirl of energy around her feet, causing the earth to tremble and shake almost violently. The output of her power nearly blew the blond off of his feet with a surprised yelp as the police vehicles were shoved a good thirty or so feet back before they were flipped onto their sides before coming to a abrupt stop as the glow slowly faded enough to allow the blond to finally drop his arms again and blink at her.

He didn't know who or what the kid was, but it was more than evident not just by the display of power she had just given, but also by the changes in her physical appearance- that she wasn't a normal kid.

Blinking again as he looked her over from head to toe, he noticed that her clothing, her shoes, and even her hair looked different now. She had been wearing jeans and a T-shirt before. And now, she was wearing an all black wrap around robe like shirt with long, loose fitting sleeves and pants that matched. On her feet were strange, flimsy looking straw sandals.

On her back was a massive and wicked looking black steel blade wrapped in what looked like cotton bandages instead of it resting in a sheath.

Her strange looking long strawberry blond- orange hair had been up in a ponytail before, and now hung loosely down to the small of her back. But it was her eyes that perhaps startled him the most out of everything.

They were clear, vivid warm amber with a golden tint in the light brown, turning them an almost coppery-bronze color. There was no fear. No nothing that would have held a normal person back or made them balk at being in this place at this particular time.

The girl had no plan of fleeing with everyone else.

She intended to stay and to fight to her dying breath if need be.

The blond let out a shuddering breath at the implications of this knowledge. Could he really in good conscience let a child- or teenager- whatever the case may be, no matter how powerful or special fight? Could he really let someone's kid- their baby girl go into a warzone and possibly die?

He might have told her to leave again regardless if not for the fact that their time was up and the invasion had already started in earnest.

Taking a deep breath as he scrubbed his face with his hands, he heard Tony calling for him over the small radio in his ear and quickly made a choice however good or ill, "My name is Steve Rodgers. Everyone calls me Captain America. You got a name soldier?"

Soldier, Steve inwardly cringed. It was easier to think of the girl as a fellow soldier than some random kid. It made it easier not to feel guilty for what he was allowing to happen.

The girl sagely inclined her head at him and said confidently as a smile curved her pale pink lips, "Ichigo Kurosaki, substitute Soul Reaper."

Steve might have been about to say 'nice to meet you' followed by 'let's go' but the second he heard the kid say Soul Reaper, he seemed to lose all ability to speak beyond a squeak as he let out an indignant squawk, "W-What?!"