Marvel: A Tale of Shadows

"What do you mean she is busy?" Thor's voice roared in annoyance. He was standing near Heimdall who had just finished speaking with his mother. "Contact her again."

"No, she said to not contact her unless Asgard was in peril. I apologize, your highness." Heimdall flatly stated.

"Then send me to her!" Thor declared while he walked toward the portal gate expecting Heimdall to comply.

"I couldn't even if I wanted to. Frigga is extremely talented in magic and has come up with methods to hide herself from my sight. The only reason I could even see her and speak to her is because she left a magical marker that would allow me to." Heimdall shook his head, "anyways, your highness I believe you have a celebration to get to. Just as I have to return to my duty of watching the realms."

Thor growled in annoyance as he marched heavily across the rainbow bridge and back to the palace.

Heimdall only shook his head. He truly hoped that the boy would grow out of these fits he was throwing. It was clear that his own mother was tired of the temper tantrums.

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The next day at Gada's Pub & Restaurant.

"Congrats!" The trio clinked their drinks again as they waited for their desert order. At this point, their shared mentor had already retired for the night.

"Sable it was an honor and a privilege to have your company during training. Where are you off to next?" Felicia asked as she grabbed an onion ring out of the basket of fried goods.

Sable shrugged with a small smirk on her face, "tomorrow I meet the First Line mercenary branch head then head off on my assignment. After that I will head to Symkaria and make my base of operations out of there while accepting assignments."

"Do you plan to clean up your country in your downtime?" Ethan asked as he munched on a fried cucumber from the basket.

Silver sighed as she nodded with a sad smile on her face, "yes, I plan on displacing that moron of a tyrant that is ruling while I develop my own company to help Symkaria."

Felicia only shook her head, "the benefits and negatives of being part of the mercenary branch. Glad neither of us plan to do that." She then realized something Silver said. "What do you mean the first assignment?"

Silver only shrugged while grabbing a fried shrimp, "after 'graduation' you will get an assignment from First Line which will raise your level from 'Recruit' to 'Asset'. It also opens up the organization to you some more. Of course each assignment will be related to your branch focus. So I will probably be working a mercenary assignment. While you two will… well you know…"

Felicia and Ethan nodded while thinking of her words.

So after Ethan 'graduates' he will likely work under the assassination branch and will have to do an assassination jobs. While Felicia would have to steal something for First Line. Both jobs will probably be contracted jobs or jobs without time limits since they would hand them to new recruits. Silver went on to explain that they would get three chances to pass the recruit test.

Ethan was about to ask another question when he spotted three plates coming from the kitchen. He stared avidly while he watched the dishes slowly approach.

The waitress set the dishes down while shaking her head, "secret dish, fried death. Three of 'em. How the 'ell y'all eat it I do'know." The dishes were advertised as fried death on a plate. There were two scoops of ice cream, fried. Sitting on six fried oreos. A fried banana on the side. With a serving of whipped cream on top. Then to top it all off, there was a fried cherry on top. The only thing that was different between their three dishes was the sauce they put on top. Silver had caramel syrup. Felicia had chocolate syrup. While Ethan had a raspberry syrup. "Enjoy dyin'!" The waitress spoke with a chuckle over her shoulder as she walked away.

"Holy-" Silver started off.

"Fuck!" Felicia stated as she stared at her plate. Then she looked at Ethan who had already started eating. "When you called it Fried Death I knew it would be weird. But you really undercut this."

Ethan only nodded with an ice cream filled smirk. As he continued to devour his dish the ladies spent a few moments figuring out how to tackle this new foe.

Ethan was munching through the various layers of crunchy fried goodness that layered over the sweet and gooey layers of food. He savored the flavor as it was truly death in the form of fried foods.

"Ethan… we could have shared this dish. Why did you make us each get our own?" Silver asked as she glanced amazed at his plate that was halfway gone. "Nevermind that. Better question. How are you eating this?"

Ethan swallowed the scoop of fried goods he had on his spoon and then spoke, "go for the banana, whip cream, and cherry first. Then you eat one of the fried scoops of icecream, then the cookies underneath. Then the next one, and the cookies underneath." He then went back to eating. While Felicia and Silver looked at eachother then shrugged and dived in.

The following several minutes were of silence and clinking as they each chipped away at their plates.

Ethan was the first to finish and seeing the other two still focused he stood up and walked over to the bartender.

"How can I help you?" the bartender asked as he cleaned a glass.

Ethan pulled out his wallet, "I'm going to pay for the meal and ask for a box." He pulled out several bills to pay.

The bartender set down the glass and took the money and walked over to an area behind the bar. Ethan glanced around the place and saw there were very few others. When the bartender came back he had the box in one hand and the change and receipt in the other. "Here you go. I assume you kids are heading out? Have a good night."

Ethan nodded and grunted then walked back to the table. When he sat down he caught the girls attention for only a moment before they went back to eating. First he looked at the receipt and left some of the leftover cash and coins on the table and put the rest back in his wallet. Then he dished the remaining fried foods into the box.

Once he was done the girls were almost done with their dishes when Silver threw in the towel, "that's it. I can not eat any more of that. I still have to get up early tomorrow." She could hear a chuckle coming from Ethan. She only shook her head and nudged her plate to Ethan. Who quickly started scarfing down the remains. By the time Felicia finished, Ethan cleaned off Silver's plate.

"Okay. That was surprisingly good. But that is something you eat like once a… year." Felicia glanced at Ethan who nodded in confirmation.

"Only celebrations, gonna run off the calories for the next few days."

"Ha! Glad I will be active for the next few days." Silver stated. Then she stood up, so did Felicia and Ethan as they walked out of the bar. Once out by the street they said their goodbyes while Felicia and Silver said their goodbyes Ethan glanced at a message he received on his phone and frowned.

Once they separated and started walking away Ethan started fiddling on his phone.

As he fiddled with his phone he was currently counter hacking into a some high-grade system. He remained quiet the whole way home.

"What are you doing?" Felicia asked as she noticed his attention was solely on his phone.

"Hacking."

"Huh… I guess that is all I am getting for now." As soon as they arrived at the apartment Ethan went to his computer and started it up. Then he immediately started typing. It lasted for a half an hour before he stopped. Then he yawned loudly and stretched his arms. "Can you tell me a bit more now?"

Ethan looked at her for a moment confused before he understood and nodded, "yes… sorry. It seems that Shield was curious about my Reaper the Hacker persona. So they tried to attack some code I had hidden in the federal database. I just counterhacked them and set it on a loop so every time they attack me they should start hacking themselves. I also set a few false flags as traps in several different databases. It should be awhile before they catch on. But that is fine. I won't need the federal database for a while."

Felicia took a moment before she nodded, "got it. Well just remember we are moving to the new apartment on Monday and we are going to that chess tournament tomorrow. Don't get caught up in your hobbies." As she laid her head on her pillow she suddenly thought of something. "Why are you getting more degrees?"

Ethan shrugged as he started changing into his night clothes. "Because I plan to start a tech company and having a record of various degrees means I can venture into those branches of science without catching much suspicion."

"Huh… So I am guessing you are doing computer science eventually so you don't have to worry about when others find it too difficult to hack you?" Felicia guessed.

"Yup." Ethan then layed down to sleep.

"What products will you sell?" Felicia asked. Ethan guessed she was in a curious mood.

"Technology, Weapons, Designs, Games. Just about anything I want. Of course I will take on Federal, Military, and Private contracts as well, but nothing world breaking like tech that can read a person's DNA and detail if they are a mutant." Ethan explained. He had not realized until later how much data he got out of those files they raided from the former Hydra base. He could map the latent mutant or other abilities dormant in people.

It gave him ideas to counter several mutant abilities. As well as a further understanding of mutant DNA, so he could make a tool to scan for it. But he had other ideas and things he wanted to look into first. Such as supersoldier serums, those symbiotes, and various other weapons and computer techs he had retrieved.

"As long as you don't plan to sell anything along the lines of nukes, we should be good." Felcia stated as she rolled over. More than likely having satisfied her curiosity.

Ethan nodded as he lay down to go to sleep. Mind filled with ideas of what he should do and plans he needed to make or finalize.

Maybe he should write them down… he'll do it tomorrow.

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As she ran through the alleys she could already tell that this would come back to bite her in the bum.

She was doing her usual nightly scavenging. Tonight she was spotted, like she was most nights. Then like most nights she was chased down. But unlike most nights she got unlucky tonight. Because tonight she accidentally witnessed a murder.

As usual she snuck into the back of a bar. She went through and pocketed some food and any cash that was lying around. But when she went to leave she noticed something happening through the office door. She took a peak and would probably regret her decision for the rest of her life.

Because at that moment she saw a large man putting a bullet in another man's head. Using a pistol of course, she even got a good look at his face.They were a group of people in leather coats, most had shaved heads and beards. Some even had tattoos covering their visible skin. They all wore motorcycle biker gear, each one was armed with some kind of melee weapon. Whether it was a sledgehammer, a bat, a knife, a pipe, she even remembered seeing one of those taxidermied fish.

But the details on their leader were more distinct. He was a tattooless bald african-american man, with no facial hair and piercing blue eyes. In one hand he was pointing the pistol with a fingerless black leather glove, while the other had a bloody sledgehammer resting on his shoulder. He wore a sleeveless black leather motorcycle coat with the words 'Tombstone' written in bold letters and the symbol of a tombstone with a skull on it.

Surprised by the site, she lost her balance and made some noise. Knowing she screwed up, she bolted out the window and hopped out the window. As she hopped out she caught sight of one of the bikers yelling at his friends. Thus a chase began, she was able to get to a roof eventually, but it did not mean she wasn't worried.

She was in the middle of their turf, she would not be able to rest until she got out. This might take awhile.