Chapter 29: C28 - Luke passed the Test!
E/d: because I had removed the "Date invitation" between Natasha and Luke in C26, I had to also remove the dating scene in this chapter. The dating scene took place at a shooting range. I have already made plans to include this in future chapters, when Natasha and Luke get to know each other more and can start hanging out in places like these together as friends, and not a date.
'Inner dialogue/thoughts'
"Normal dialogue"
[System]
[Diary entries]
(Word count: 1,418)
~ With Fury ~
"What can you tell me, Agent Romanoff?" Fury was currently in a call with Natasha through his private line. He had already been briefed by Natasha on the plan that she would enact in order to test Luke.
Natasha had investigated into Luke's personal life since she first received the mission. Through the liberal use of viewing CCTV records in the surrounding area, she had found the route that Luke would use whenever he walked to and from his apartment and the café, which was not a far distance apart. With that in mind, she had set up a plan.
First, she would have two lower levelled agents disguise themselves as a robber and a person in distress. Next, she would distract Luke long enough to hold him at the café, while a different team of agents would subtly direct human traffic away from the alleyway they would be using. Finally, the two disguised agents would begin acting out the scenario and she would have multiple cameras set up observing the area, to see how Luke would react. Natasha had already gotten the report from the two agents, as well as viewed the recording footage. What she saw gained a nod of approval from her.
"Luke had been as careful as he could have been. When he heard a person in distress cry out for help, he had slightly increased his pace to see what was happening. Upon reaching the scene, it may have looked as if he had ignored the two entirely, however, with a camera zoomed in on him, I had noticed a slight flick of his fingers, which was then followed by Agent Geller suddenly falling unconscious." Natasha began her report. "From what the two agents had reported to me, Agent Geller had felt something wet hit the back of his neck just before he went unconscious, however Agent Green had reported that she had not seen anything, and that Geller had just suddenly passed out. Moreover, both agents checked the area around Agent Geller's neck and clothing and were surprised that it was dry, as if he wasn't hit by anything. It had taken the police roughly 6 minutes to arrive, where Agent Green had cleared up the situation."
"And what have you found?" Hearing this, Fury asked intriguingly.
"For one thing sir, I can confirm that Luke may still hold some lingering attachments to the Natasha from his world. Something about our interactions today felt like he was reminiscing with an old friend. I also often noticed the look he had in his eyes, seemingly enjoying on recalling those times." Natasha started, "Moreover, the topics that I had brought up to make conversation was to test on his knowledge about my personal life, which he seemed pretty knowledgeable about. He even 'guessed' that I liked going to a shooting range as a hobby."
"I also noticed that he seemed to have this aura of 'confidence' around him, more pronounced than the first time we had met. It was almost as if seeing me had solidified his convictions to try and help this world from facing the same situation that his world had faced. It's the only way I can explain this sudden change."
Hearing this, Fury thought that his decision to bring the Maximoff siblings, especially Wanda, to ensure a stronger anchor for Luke was the right call. 'And if the siblings really do have powers, then we could use them in the Avengers if they can pass the test.'
"And what of the results from the test you prepared for Luke? Anything new you've discovered?" Fury inquired, eager to hear how Luke had performed.
"I will be providing detailed accounts in the report that I will write up sir. But for now, I believe that Luke may be an empowered individual, just not one like Captain America." Natasha said. Not receiving a reply from Fury was an indication for her to continue. "Sir, from the time he flicked his fingers and from the accounts of Agent Geller, I had checked the recorded footage for anything out of place. From there, I noticed that a water droplet had seemingly appeared out of thin air, which before impacting Geller, had expanded to a slightly bigger droplet in order to be blunt enough to not cause serious damage."
"Looking at the speed and precision in which it happened, I was even more surprised to find out from the footage that all this happened without Luke needing visual confirmation." Natasha finally revealed. Upon hearing this, even Fury was caught surprised. "Sir, Luke seemed to have displayed two separate abilities. The first could be matter creation, which could explain creating the water droplet out of thin air. And the second would be complete mastery of his sense of surrounding unlike anything we've ever seen."
Natasha had thrown out some theories of her own, however wrong they may be. Fury had also been coming up with theories himself regarding the abilities that Luke had seemed to have. However, a more pressing issue appeared in his mind. 'If he has these abilities, why did it seem to me like he was a normal human without any special abilities in the diary entries he had written? Could this be one of the effects of his transmigration to our world? Is he hiding additional abilities that we do not know of, or that he himself may not know of?'
What Fury did not know of was just how close to the truth he had been. This was indeed an effect of Luke's transmigration, however, it was an effect of the system that Luke had received.
"So, Luke may be an ability or multiple ability user? What of his psyche evaluations?" Fury questioned.
"At this moment, nothing points to any mental breakdowns any time soon. In fact, although melancholic, Luke now seemed to not be feeling as down as he had mentioned in the diary. In terms of his morality, as he had chosen to knock the 'robber' unconscious instead of killing, we can conclude that his past experiences in his world have strengthened his good nature. However, being a SHIELD field agent, we can also conclude that he can go for the killing blow when required. I would say that he is able to differentiate when and where it was appropriate to kill or not to kill." Natasha stated.
"He has also commented on the kidnapping, which I will include in the report. It felt as if he was dropping some clues and hints as to the true background of the kidnapping. Sir, I believe he knows what really happened, but if we were to get any information from him, we would have to expose ourselves." Natasha informed. This was a decision that she could not make, and only Fury could.
Thinking on it, Fury decided not to press for information. "No, we'll leave it there. I will read the report myself and take it from there. Good work Agent Romanoff." Fury finished as he ended the call. He had a lot to think about and a personnel file to update. Fury was slowly becoming more and more convinced that Luke had the material to become an Avenger in this world too.
- End of Chapter 28 –
Next time on C29 - Meeting with Fury! Wanda has been exposed?!
Smirking internally at having caught Wanda's blunder, Fury spoke, "Ms Maximoff, Judging from the way your brother reacted, this should have been a piece of world news that the both of you should not have known about. And yet you look like you've known about it for awhile now. Care to tell the room why?"
The results of vote is to change the OC enemy type to something other than the "Dimensional Threat" as in the MTL! BUT, someone brought up a good point. In order to not fully deviate from the source, I wanted to try and at least stick close to the explanations given in the MTL.
Webnovel appearances of the OC enemies, "Abyssal Covenant" - known as Olivia Temple in MTL, "True Demon God" - my own original enemy, "Marak Azathraal" and "Messengers" - my own original enemies inspired by MTL enemy known as "Yan Devil", will be in C40!
I had to re-do the entire backstory of this OC enemy because the MTL explanations just confused me even more. APPARENTLY, if I'm reading it right, "Yan Devil" (also known as Flame Demon) is a person who claims to be a 'messenger' of the Olivia Temple in MTL35. But then MTL44 is saying that Yan Devil (known as Flame Demon in that chapter) and the Olivia Temple are one the same and not separate entities?
Moreover, Yan Devil had robbed a jewelry store in New York, AND WAS KILLED BY SHIELD when they chased after him. So is there just ONE Yan Devil, OR is there MULTIPLE? Because MTL35 said it is one guy .-.
I am VERY sure that something got lost in the translation, but then at the same time this could also be a lack of understanding in the Chinese language and how they speak/write. Like really, go read MTL44 and you'll understand my confusion at the backstory of this OC enemy.
So, for this series, the True Demon God, Marak Azathraal and the Abyssal Covenant will remain as mysterious and unknown as possible until I need to explain more due to MTL progression of this OC enemy!