SSARITF? Chapter Five

[samecgh]

The Demon's arm was stopped by two hands pulling at his arm to stop him. “Quite unfortunately, I cannot allow you to do that,” someone commented. He turned around to see a man with long black hair and green robes on. “Blood oaths and repentance vows. Pesky things.” John's eyes widen almost comically if it weren't for the knife still pointed at him.

The demon didn't know what to make of his new enemy. He wasn't human. “Leave me be, before I kill you,” he ordered, trying to shake off his grip.

Hellboy looked over at the new person that joined in the fight. “Blue, who is that?” he asked.

Abe turned to see the person that was now fighting the Berockh demon. “I believe Loki,” he said.

Coulson watched the event unfold on the screen. When did Loki find out about John? Or did he just know when he met him at the Junditto?

Loki twisted the demon around and threw him a few feet into a HYDRA agent. The demon still had the knife, but used it to try and stab him instead. He parried, then stopped him again from stabbing him. The third time, he twisted the wrist until the knife was dropped. He then picked it up and threw it away from John and the demon.

Abe helped John off the slab and led him away while the demon was occupied. “You must leave,” he insisted, “The demon cannot be allowed to finish the ritual with your death.”

“You can't deal with all these agents,” he countered.

“We will not have to for long. You must leave, John,” Abe pushed. Both jumped out of the way when a fireball was thrown close to their feet. They looked up to see Liz completely ablaze. “I believe both of us should leave.” The two of them ran out when the first fire blast let loose. The heat kept them running until they came across SHIELD agents trying to get closer. “I would not get closer.”

“Fire,” John iterated, “The ones we need to concern ourselves about are probably safe.”

“The Berockh demon?” one asked.

“Check after the fire's done burning,” John said.

The phone on the lead agent rang and he pulled it out. “Yes?” He handed it over to John after a second.

He took it warily. “Hello?”

Coulson sighed on the other side, “Just making sure. You'll be coming back to Stark Tower for your debrief.” He hung up before John could ask anything. He handed back the phone before walking out with Abe.

“So, how has freelancing treated you?” he asked.

“Not bad.”

The two of them headed over the cars when something popped up next to them. Loki looked down at John before disappearing. “How...” John puzzled, before turning around to see the inferno Liz created. There were no flames coming out of the building.

“He is a God,” Abe mentioned.

He turned quickly. “What?”

Liz walked out with an agent's jacket draped over her as best as she could to cover herself. Hellboy still had the remnants of his pants, but not much else. Both walked over to Abe and John when they saw them. “Long time, John,” Liz chided.

“Sorry,” he said, “They never allowed me your contact info. Manning said I would have run you off purposely.” He wrapped an arm around her and squeezed once before letting go and stepping away from her. “Hellboy,” he nodded.

“Boy scout,” he grumbled, before using his left hand to mess up his hair.

“Nice to see you as well,” he conceded, fixing it after. Hellboy messed it up again and kept his hand there to stop him.

=

Coulson finally allowed himself to stop staring at the screens when he heard Natasha and Clint pick up John to bring him to the tower. The rest of the agents were either heading back to SHIELD headquarters or going over to the HYDRA hideout and the ritual site. The BPRD was helping with the second, identifying and neutralizing spells. John walked in and he minimized the feeds. Neither knew where to start. John said, “Hi, Phil.”

“John,” he stated.

“I uh, guess you know about the BPRD.”

“I do,” he confirmed.

“Are you mad?”

“Yeah,” he admitted, “I thought you were just FBI. I thought you would be dealing with humans, completely ordinary humans whose worse offenses would be robbery, kidnapping, murder with normal weapons. Instead, you're dealing with demons and witches that kill with curses.”

“That was only one time,” John weakly protested, “And Liz flamed her before she could finish.”

He didn't read all the files that John was involved in, but that just scared him more. Yes, Coulson could admit he was scared. His youngest brother was involved in an agency that involved dangerous beings. Humans were dangerous by themselves; but normal knives, guns, hand to hand combat. Most of that was easy to avoid or fight against. Demons? Magick? How did he fight against that with just a gun? “How did you get involved with the BPRD?” he inquired, wanting to know more about why.

John was surprised at the question. “I finished training at Quantico. There were a few cities that were looking for new probies. New York, Los Angeles. Professor Broom had been watching me for a while; he invited me,” he informed, “My first position was handler to Hellboy. I was supposed to be a link to humanity to him. He got me transferred to Antarctica for some stupid reason.” He stopped and tapped the table, unintentionally bringing up a computer screen. He hurriedly got out and took his hands off. “You know about the BPRD. How did you get involved in SHIELD?”

He was unsurprised that he asked that question. “Your security clearance isn't high enough for me to answer that,” he denied.

“Phil, if you don't tell him, we will,” Clint informed, walking in with Natasha and the others. “And we’ll tell him the embarrassing moments.” Abe took the seat next to John while Hellboy and Liz chose two seats off the center. Liz had a SHIELD uniform on and Hellboy just had a new pair of pants. “Also, the demon was fried before having his head cut off.”

“Completely dead,” Hellboy said, “No worries from that demon. Come on, we're all living security secrets; you can tell him.”

Clint smirked; Natasha slightly nodded at Coulson. Both of them thought he should tell him. “Fury and I were in the same Ranger group,” he stated, “When he was recruited into SHIELD, he brought me along. I'm his other eye and ears for all intelligence.”

“AKA gossip and rumors of the spy world,” Clint interpreted.

John asked, “Who else knows?”

“Frank, Martha and Jake. Ben and Abbi think I'm FBI, just in a different division than you.”

“Like you would ever be a Feeble, Coulson,” Clint remarked.

He was ignored. “Where's Ben now?” John inquired.

“Somewhere in Michigan, I think.”

He sighed in relief. “That's good.” Everyone turned to him in confusion. “Last I heard, he was in Maine, and there were vampires in this small town. We had a hard time getting rid of all the turned vampires.” Coulson kept his mouth shut.

JARVIS had to interrupt then, startling John. “Excuse me, Agent Coulson, but the news of Agent Myers has reached the others,” he reported, “I've also taken calls from Colonel Myers and Agents Evans and Nerchant. They would like to know about John's status and talk to him.”

“Others?” John inquired.

“Hi, Agent,” Tony announced, looking at the room and seeing the new people. He dropped down in the other chair besides John. “So, you're the youngest brother of a group of siblings our sitter has never mentioned.”

It took a minute for John to get his thoughts together, but he finally did. “The Avengers?” he squeaked.

“Hey, he recognized us,” Tony joked, “Are you a fan of our work?”

“Tony,” someone warned. Steve walked in, along with Bruce. “Steve Rogers,” he introduced, holding out his hand.

“Bruce Banner.”

John stood up to shake his hand. “John Myers.” He moved over to Bruce's, who waved him off. He turned to the others. “They are Hellboy,” he pointed out, who raised an arm, “Abe Sapien...”

“Pleasure,” he greeted.

“And Liz Sherman.” She simply waved.

“All former BPRD,” Tony confirmed, “I caught up quickly on what's been happening. Did you know your brother stopped the apocalypse as well? And at the tender age of twenty six.”

Coulson set his eyes to John, who started feeling uncomfortable with the increase of attention. “Sir, Agent Coulson, Colonel Myers and Agent Evans are here. Nerchant is on a secure line, waiting for you to open a video conference,” JARVIS declared.

“More family members, Phil,” Tony proclaimed, “Who do we ask for the embarrassing stories?”

“If anyone deserves to ask that question, it's us, Stark,” Clint declared.

“Granted, after we talk to the two of them,” someone agreed. From the strict posture and the dress grays, most concluded that it was Colonel Frank Myers, the oldest of the siblings. A younger male stood outside the first door and another walked over to the other entrance. A woman followed behind. Both Clint and Natasha immediately tightened at her presence, intelligence training showing through the three of them. Frank went over to Phil, who stood up to shake his hand. “Too many years, Phil,” he commented.

“I've been busy,” he told him. He turned to his sister. “Martha.”

“Phil,” she stated.

Everyone started becoming uncomfortable, including John. “We'll just leave,” Steve said, grabbing Tony out of his chair. The man protested as he ushered them out. “JARVIS, please don't record the conversation.”

“Don't listen to him, JARVIS,” Tony countered, “I want all the details.”

John almost joined his former group out the door before Martha calmly grabbed him and sat him back down. They waited for the group to disperse. Once they all went up the elevator, Phil brought up the video conference. After loading for a few minutes, Jake Nerchant, real name Jacob Myers, came on the screen. “You guys beat me,” he complained, “Hi, John; hi Phil.”

“Jacob,” Phil greeted.

“Hi, Jake,” John waved.

“So, what has our youngest brother gotten himself into?”

“The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense,” Frank told him.

“Never dealt with it,” he commented, “Heard about the half-demon through a couple of people that met him once.”

“Hellboy,” John confirmed.

“So we've got someone else in the secret organizations trade,” he joked.

Phil slid up the information he had dug up on their parents. “There's also something else. About our parents,” he said.

The four of them quickly read the information. John was the most visibly heartbroken, wondering why not one of his colleagues had told him about his parents. Jake frowned at the information. Frank and Martha had been trained not to show emotions; their eyes tightening were the only signs of troubled thoughts. “Is that why John was taken?” she inquired.

“I was at the raid,” he explained, “The demon must have recognized something in my scent. That's why he took me.”

“And he would have grabbed another one of us to try and gain control over the world,” Coulson added, confirming the information.

“Ouch,” Jake winced. There was yelling on his side and he rolled his eyes at the comments. “Sorry, have to get off. I'm temporarily working with Ethan Hunt's group and Benji gets really annoyed at the prolonged use of video conference.” He shut off his side, leaving the application blank.

The four didn't know what to do. Pleasant conversation didn't seem like the best at night when they should be about to sleep. They all figured this and the two visitors said their goodbyes before leaving with Frank's guard. John looked like he was about to collapse on the table, but there was the actual debrief they needed to complete. “Come on, John, two more things we need to do,” he led.

“Can't it wait until morning?” he complained, laying his head on the edge of the table.

“Your memories are fresh, easier to do it now and get it out of the way.” He brought up the phone system and called the agent who was to handle the BPRD side of things before bringing up the paperwork he had to fill out. “Just start with the raid.”

=

The trio was almost out the building when they were stopped. Stark was watching them with interest, but it was Rogers that started the conversation. “We're interested in talking to you,” he started badly.

“Look, we're not joining SHIELD,” Hellboy cut off, “Not a fan of secret agencies.”

“That's not what we were thinking of,” Bruce noted.

“Considering the threats that we have been coming across,” Steve tried again.

“Basically, you know things we don't and we might contact you for fights if we're more than slightly outnumbered,” Tony interrupted, “Or get some drinks if we're in the neighborhood.”

“Drinks?” Hellboy inquired. Liz glared at him

“Come on up,” he offered, “I'm pretty much stocked with a lot because of Thor and two metabolism fast agents. I'm sure you'll be fine.”

Abe patted Liz's arm as they followed them to the elevator.

=

JARVIS interrupted during the last portion of the forms, “A bit of warning, Agents Coulson and Myers. Mister Stark has given Hellboy Asgardian mead.”

“What are they giving him?” John asked quickly, looking up from his question.

“Alcohol.”

“How dangerous is it?” he inquired.

“It's the only thing that can get Thor drunk," Coulson answered, "Thor being the god."

“I know that. Your assets just gave a powerful drink to a half-demon," he complained.

“I'm their handler, not their babysitter," he argued, but followed his brother up to the elevator so he could check on his three former charges.

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