Misunderstandings

[Location: classified, 3 hours after the incident]

"Coulson!"

He turned around, seeing May rushing trough the door, stopping just a few steps in.
She had a file in her hand, which he promptly took.

On top the name 'Marc Spector' was written in black.
He opened it, flicking through and coming face to face with corpses of all shapes and sizes.

He had seen a lot of dead bodies with his line of work being what it was.
But it still made something in him twist and turn at the thought of someone capable of this running around free.

He looked up, prosthetic hand clenching around the paper.
"What am I looking at here May?"

"The file of mercenary and enigma Marc Spector. Grew up in a Jewish household in the states, younger brother died when their were kids, mother died of alcohol abuse several years later.
He left home as soon as he turned 18 and varnished of the map for a few months until here."

Phil looked down as she pointed on one of the photos in the file.
Several dead man were lying on the ground, gun wounds everywhere across their bodies.
They seemed to be in a desert but more wasn't visible on the photos.

He turned to Melinda gesturing to the five below.
"That was him?"

She nodded.
"He became a mercenary.
Mostly active in Egypt and Arabia, climbing the ranks faster than anyone else I've heard of."

She turned a page, several photos of the man made by phone (most likely from agents or spies).
There was one of him entering the bus in London, one of him in a crowd in Europe and another of him in Cairo chasing after several other men.

"Something changed, but we don't know what the trigger was.
His missions changed, got less and less.
He was still killing, sure.
But now he was also steeling artifacts.
Mainly Egyptian ones."

"And today? What is he doing now?"

"I'm getting to that.
Look, here.
It shows the dates of the times that we could actually pinpoint a crime to him.
His operations stayed the same since then.
Killing several people with no seemingly correlation to each other and stealing artifacts.
We think that his employer stayed the same since then."

"Mercenarys don't usually follow the same employer for such a long time.
They change them to minimize the chance of leaving behind a lead.
That or the employer doesn't survive long enough."

"Exactly.
Other information we got is that he got a cover as British Steven Grant, who works in a Museum shop in London.
He was also seen several times in New York, Mexico, Spain and Italy.
First as a taxi driver, second and third no information is know about the reasons he was around and in Italy we could confirm relations to the mafia."

She flipped a few pages again stopping when she came to a page filled with sketches.
The reason why no photos were available concerned Coulson.
Either it was coincidence or they were to deadly and fast to be caught on camera.

"These are Moon Knight and Mr. Knight, which are still mostly unknown to SHIELD.
We couldn't confirm their names but rumors used them so it'll do for now.
They were more than once seen in the same area as Spector, enough that we think they are partners of some kind.
They likely follow the same employer."

He frowned.
This information was all very concerning on its own, but he was more worried about where May was heading with this...

"Do we know who the employer is?", he asked because that would actually be one useful information in this chaos of a file.

"No.
He was never seen with any of them and no phone calls could be traced back to him.
It's a blind spot for us."

Of course, nothing could ever be easy for his team, couldn't it?

"Now. This is all very interesting, but I was wondering May...why did you bring me all this information?
Knowing you, there is a good reason for it."

Her face grew impassive, gaze hardening.
"Sir, I think we are dealing with an Avengers level threat."

----------------

[New York, Avengers Tower, 6 hours after the incident]

Two Avengers walked into a meeting room.
What sounded like the beginning of a bad joke was actually grim reality.
Apparently a supernatural serial killer/mercenary was on the loose in New York, killing children.

Clint was a man that could hold a grudge (*cough* Loki *cough* ), especially when it involved the harm of children.

'Children are the future.'
A thing the tin can of Coopers favorite Star Wars show always said.
It was true.
Children were the best society had to offer and Clint would be dammed if he let someone hurting them run free.

Natasha entered firs and he followed behind, scanning the room for who was already there.
Phil smiled at him and he smiled back, giving a lazy wave before greeting the rest of the room and sitting down.

Nat sat down next to him, promptly kicking his legs of the table.
Tony snickered at that before going back to type on his Stark Phone.
From the way he smiled at the screen Clint guessed that he was probably texting with Peter.

Bruce and Steve were the next to arrive, chatting quietly with each other.
Steve gave a smile as he entered while Bruce only waved.

"Where's Point Break?"

The Captain sat down next to Tony looking expectantly at the still open door.
"He should come any minute now.
He just wanted to finish his Pop Tarts."

True to his word Thor came hurrying in a few minutes later, red cape flowing dramatically behind him.

"Natashaaa I'm bored!" ,he sighed out spinning around in his chair.

The assassin just leveled an annoyed look his way which he answered by sticking his tongue out, all mature and adult-y.

It was then that Steve, ever the leader, clapped his hands together loud enough for everyone to hear, signaling the start of the meeting.

"Avengers attention.
We have gathered here to discuss a new dangerous super-powered foe.
SHIELD has classified him as an Avengers level threat, so we might have a mission on our hands soon.
Phil?"

He looked at the Agent, prompting him to continue.
Coulson took the hint and stepped forward, now grabbing the attention of the entire room.

"The emergency contact center of SHIELD got a call today from a certain Theo Maham."

They had a fucking emergency contact center, how had he never know about that?!

While he was having his little existential crisis in the background a hologram of a kind looking man with blue colored afro hair appeared on the screen.

"Police officer, clean record, lives in New York with his man and children.
He called just about 5 hours ago after a criminal escaped out of their interrogation room and then the police building."

The picture changed to a stopped security footage of a room, filled with bodies lying on the ground.
In the middle of them stood a man, grinning like a maniac and shooting at the ceiling.

"This is Marc Spector."

A pass photo of the man appeared, showing the Avengers his face more clearly.
Clint could see that Natasha was already making mental notes of their target, analyzing every information she got.

Should he be doing the same?
Probably...?
Nah it was fine.
Nat's gonna clue him later anyway.

"He has a history of violence, having worked as mercenary for several years.
For a few years his method of operation has stayed mostly the same.
His targets have no real connection to each other and he has been seen several times stealing , mostly Egyptian, artifacts.

We assume the reason behind it is, that he didn't change employers for years now, a thing which is rare with mercenarys of his caliber."

Now a hologram of the world map appeared in the air, marking dozens of red points all around the globe.

"We have marked activity that could be traced back to him and his partners."

Sketches of two men in white suits appeared next to the map.
If Clint had to describe it he would say one looked like a mummy and the other like a dadd- like a mafia boss with weird fashion sense.

"We don't have enough information about them to make a profile but rumors mark them both as superhumans with healing ability and super strength as their primary advantage.

All three of them were connected to the Cairo incident in some way but it's unknown in what way exactly."

"Wait wait wait!
Wasn't the night sky incident connected to the Cairo incident?
Do we know if any of the 3 have anything to do with it?"
Clint was star gazing with his family on the farm that night.
To say that it had been a shock to see the fucking night sky move at this rate was an understatement.
It had been fucking terrifying!

He turned to the archer and nodded.
"Yes Clint, we do believe so."
He then turned back to the the entire room , clearing his throat before continuing.
"Now the reason Theo Maham had for calling SHIELD is that Marc Spectors way of breaking out involved a few incidents.
To name a few, he escaped without using any weapons against more than 30 heavily armed men, he didn’t seem to be affected by any wounds he got, some reported his eyes to glow white from time to time and he survived a gun shot to the head."

Heavy silence followed that statement.
When no one (not even Stark!) started talking after a few moments had passed Coulson simply continued.

"We believe that he is either a being similar to the white clothed superhumans or is actually one of the two."

Stark had stopped eating his blueberries (why hadn't the bastard shared??) and was thoughtfully staring at the air.
He then let his gaze wander over to Phil and asked: "Do we have any information on his current whereabouts?"

Coulson shook his head.
"No, but we could try to get more information out of T-"

Clint blinked as Coulson was promptly interrupted by his phone.
He never had it on loud!
(Or maybe he just ignored Clint's messages? Nah...or..?)

He leaned back, watching Phil's expressions go on a roller coaster ride.
When he put his phone back he looked back up, expression stern.

"My team found him."

The room erupted into motion, every Avenger (minus Bruce) suiting up as fast as possible.
They were ready in less than 6 minutes and 19 seconds (why was Nat counting seconds now?), standing in the Quinjet and taking off.

"So...where did your agents find our mystery man?" , Stark asked suddenly.

Phil grimaced and with a pinched voice answered: "Hell's kitchen"

For fuck's sake!