¹ Strength of the Mind || Marvel Cinematic Universe

23|Out of Obscurity

Caity Lotz as Laltalre "Alta" Matthews

The cell phone rang out in the corner where it was charging. The young-ish looking woman was turning around to look at the phone and it rang out again. She walked over from where she had been packing her bag and she looked down at the phone, sighing at the familiar phone number before she was picking it up. "What do you want, Ikaris?" She asked.

"I won't let you join that Avengers Initiative, Laltalre." Unfortunately for her, Laltalre or Alta as she was more commonly known by, she knew better than anybody that he would try to stop her in any way that he could and she knew better than to contest it. "We have our orders, Alta, you know that you cannot disobey Arishem." She scoffed at the words, before she shook her head and she knew that he couldn't see it.

"I don't care about Arishem's orders anymore, Ikaris. We were not meant to interfere in any conflicts that don't involve the Deviants, I know that. But I cannot stand by and watch, as the world burns." She said. When she could hear more words beginning, Alta swiftly hung up the phone and the Eternal on the other end of the line was left rather all too baffled by the occurrence. "Good riddance." She muttered, tucking it into her bag quickly.

Alta walked out of her apartment and she was locking up, before she walked down the stairs quickly and she was meeting with the SHIELD agents, led by Carter and Hunter. "Alta." Hunter greeted her with a sort of smile on his face and she very briefly gave him a half-hug, before they were all getting into their cars.

"So, where are we headed?" Alta asked as Hunter was driving and Carter was flying overhead with his suit instead of being in a vehicle, siting carsickness as an issue apparently.

"We are headed to JFK and, then from there we all now will be flying out into the open ocean with the intent of meeting up with the others." Hunter explained and Alta was nodding slightly at the words.

"Who else is there?" Alta questioned.

"Natasha, me and Carter. Plus Kiara Stark is on her way, she will be flying out of Stark Tower shortly." Hunter was counting them out. "Her dad should be following behind us a little bit and Steve Rogers may or may not show up." Hunter explained.

"What about Doctor Banner then?" Alta asked and now, she was continuing to flip through the hard-copy of the briefing file that was in her hands.

"Natasha already convinced him to show up. Doctor Banner is already there." Hunter calmly replied as he was parking them at the airport and they were meeting up in a helicopter. "Agent Coulson!" He called and Phil was turning to look at them. "Alta, you remember Coulson?"

"Agent Coulson, it's nice to see you." Alta shook hands with the older agent. "Steve." She said loudly, raising her voice slightly and she recognized the familiar face, as she walked over to him and Steve sighed with relief at the sight of somebody who wouldn't gawk at him or ask him over three hundred questions within the span of twenty minutes and they were hugging quickly.

"Hey Alta." Steve murmured and she was letting him out of the hug quickly, right before they were all getting onboard.

Before they took off, a very familiar suit was barreling onto the plane and the person inside of it was landing with a tumble and a loud and painful grunting noise. Hunter looked over at Kiara as her helmet opened and she cursed. "Ow." Kiara muttered and Hunter laughed, holding out a hand to her. Kiara took the offered hand as she hopped up and the suit was folding itself up into a suitcase. "Hello everyone. Not my best entrance, I will fully admit." She said as she was sitting down across from Alta and Steve, who looked at each other.

Alta looked amused as she glanced over at Kiara, who narrowed her eyes. "You have been around for a lot longer than you look." Kiara said immediately and Alta chuckled softly at the words, before she was nodding. "How long have you been on earth?" Kiara asked and Alta glanced at her.

"Let's just say that I came to earth on my own, when the men, women and children of this planet, were still living in caves." Alta replied and Kiara's eyes widened. "Don't worry, young one, I have learned to adapt to modern times." Alta stated as she was leaning back in her seat, before the plane was taking off.

Steve was watching a video of Bruce Banner transforming into the hulk, roaring as the massive green hulk was defending himself against what appeared to be the entire U.S army in the area as Alta was shaking her head. "Wow." Alta murmured quietly as she put her headphones in and she was closing her eyes, listening to the music that was flooding through her ears.

Alta's phone rang out and everybody looked over at her. "How the heck do you even have service up here?" Phil asked and Alta held up her ringing phone, which was a satellite phone and she was flipping it open.

"Go away." She spoke loudly and sharply into the silver and black phone before she was swiftly hanging up, closing the phone and putting it into her pocket again.

"Who was that?" Kiara asked very curiously and Alta glanced over at her, before she was shrugging at the words.

"An annoying ex, who doesn't seem to understand the word "No." Alta replied evenly and Kiara's shrug was clear and Alta was closing her eyes.

Alta's weapons spun around quickly as she was slashing at the nearby Deviants and then overhead and all around her, the other fighters were charging at the nearest Deviants. They were defending the ancient city of Babylon as they were attacking the Deviants, while Makkari was getting all of the humans into the city.

On top of the walls, Alta could see Artemisia as she was borrowing Druig's powers to urge the other terrified humans to get into the big city through the still-open gates now, before Alta was swiftly turning around to face the nearby deviants with a flash of fury in her eyes and the rest of them were charging at the Deviants, each using their respective abilities to get the job done.

"Alta, wake up." Somebody was shaking her and Alta snapped awake, knocking Hunter away from her with a hard punch. Hunter groaned as he got up from the floor and now, his nose was gushing blood. "Ow! Jesus freaking Christ!" Hunter shouted in pain and now, he was using his extra shirt to try and staunch the blood-flow.

"Sorry." Alta muttered as she pulled her headphones off of her head and now Hunter was grumbling not-so-quietly, as Kiara was getting back into her suit and walking off of the plane quickly. Hunter followed the young Stark as he was going inside, to where Carter was already waiting with the rest of the SHIELD Crew.

"Here we go." Alta murmured and now she was swiftly just walking with Steve and Bruce, all of them getting into the Heli-carrier that Fury, Hunter and Carter, they had all taken the liberty of just warning her about it, ahead of time.