A New Threat!!

*Nick Fury POV*

Fury stood in front of an old crumbling castle. It could be considered a historical site considering it's size and how old it looked... except no one knew about it because of it's perfect camouflage. Even from the satellites. And the fact that anyone able to find it would have become food for the castle's residents or those who used to live there.

He gazed at the marks on the ground, explosion marks, broken walls, the castle from inside was in standing condition, except the main hall found below. Fury watched as the agents collected ash samples and machine samples, and recovering anemic unconscious people. Probably, no, definitely picked from the streets or smuggled in. And he couldn't stop any of this, even though HE is supposed to be the director of an organization that is supposed to protect Earth.

"Sir, was it necessary for you to come here" Coulson asked, standing besides him.

"It's a change of pace compared to just sitting in the office." Fury said, and Coulson nodded besides him. Fury said nothing either and paid attention on finding anything the agents missed while they cleaned the lower floors. Coulson came with a tablet and said. "Sir, we found something."

Fury said nothing as he took the tablet and saw some blurry video's. Some showed some well equipped agents shoot at the vampires outside and inside of the castle, while others showed Dracula standing between vampires and talking to a group, who Fury recognized as the Defenders, with a few members missing, which he found in the next video taking people out of the blood machines and wrapping their wounds.

"We found some cameras over the castle, which gave a feed to a factory at some distance. We hacked and got these, but most seemed destroyed. We also found another thing" Coulson explained. Fury looked at him to continue "We weren't the first to find the video evidence. We noticed multiple traces of hacking and downloading of the footage. Someone got them before us." Fury looked back at the tablet, saying nothing. There have been many hackers trying to access hidden files in Shield and other govt. agencies. And then there is the group who manage to get information about the Defenders and post it on webpages, like a fan group.

After sometime Fury asked "How was the footage destroyed?"

"We don't know sir." Coulson said. Fury had an inkling someone left the remaining proof on purpose, but didn't say anything as he would verify it first. A while after he got in his car, Coulson ran to him in a hurry. "Sir, you should see this."

Fury immediately took the tablet and looked at the screen. It showed a footage of a roadside camera. After a while, a car stopped there and a boy stepped out of it who Fury knew all too well, or so he thought. Alexander Knight. He stepped out of his car and yawned while saying something. Then a man came floating down in front of him. Fury couldn't hear anything but tried to lip read as much as he could while facing doubts like 'Is he working with the Brotherhood?' Or 'Is he a metahuman?'

But the next scene was something he never expected. Drones appeared around Alex and Magneto dropped down. Same with the other three Fury noticed were trying to sneak up on him. And the most surprising was that they couldn't do anything. Knight had tech to block metahuman abilities! After a few moments, he got in the car and drove away, as one of the drones shot the camera breaking it.

Fury watched the footage again and again, trying to find any missed details, like how they looked towards the factory on the side and Magneto's expression turned to one of caution after that.

"Coulson, make sure to search everything on the side they're looking at as well." He ordered.

"Yes sir." Coulson answered.

"But this doesn't make sense. Why would the brotherhood meet him? Money? His connection with Xavier? Or is Knight a metahuman too? " Fury asked confused.

"About that sir, I believe we know about it" This made Fury raise an eyebrow, demanding an explanation.

Coulson shifted the screen to show images of the kids under Charles that are friends with Knight, and the tablet zoomed to three particular girls which surrounded Alex. "When we tried investigating the kids and their powers, we thoroughly investigated these three because of their closeness with Mr. Knight. We were able to find out that Ms. Grey's parents passed away in an accident, while we got nothing on the black-haired one, but her Id was as real as it can be. The other red hair, Wanda Maximoff, is a different case." Coulson explained.

"We found Charles took the twins in before their mother passed away. But his reaction was different than when it came to other kids. Rather than recruitment, it was as if they had already discussed it. We tried investigating more and asked the locals about their family. And the description of their father gave us an insight to why Charles did so." Coulson answered as a photo of Magneto opened above Wanda with her mother beside Magneto.

"You're telling me she's his daughter?" Fury asked alarmed.

"The investigators are 89% sure," Coulson answered.

"Make it definitive. And start investigating Alex's relationship with them. We can't risk Magneto targeting him or the metahuman registration act would not take long to pass. Search Xavier as well for clues" Fury ordered.

"Right away sir." Coulson nodded and walked away.

"And Coulson" Fury said behind Coulson.

"Yes sir?" He asked.

"Investigate all defenders and recruit them. That includes Enigma too. We can't let them do as they please, it's Shield's job to monitor these cases, and it will." Fury ordered and drove away, as Coulson felt he was dropped somewhere surrounded by landmines at each step.

*Nick Fury's POV End*

*3rd POV*

Alex sat silently with a serious face, seeing Fury and Coulson's talk. Alfred didn't say anything either and stood back with a pondering expression. "Well. another thing outside my expectations" Alex said and sighed.

[Indeed, our plan to mislead Fury to focus on finding your relation with Brotherhood was a failure.] Oracle said.

"What's up with the shots you left in the drives?" Alex asked her about the footage.

[Everything falsified in the illusion room, of course. A fight where Dracula never met the Hellspawn.] Oracle explained the fake footage.

"And what about the hackers who accessed it before SHIELD could?" Alex asked.

[So far, Hydra, AIM, and a remote net café in Africa. And the data shows that a metahuman with technopathy was responsible. I wasn't able to follow him with cameras or satellites but picked a small spatial fluctuation before they disappeared from the slums. the rest were the Defender admirers who run your webpage.] Oracle explained.

Alex narrowed his eyes when he heard about Africa. Wakanda was out of the question. he then asked surprised, "We have a fansite?"

[Yup, and I happen to be one of the members that upload to it.] Oracle said with a mischievous voice and Alex sweat-dropped hearing her fool around.

"*Sigh* Try finding who's targeting us from Africa," He said.

[Already on it. Oh, and Banner has reached New York, by the way.] She informed Alex, who nodded and ordered.

"Put magi-satellites to monitor him and others related to the experiment. I don't want Morax or whatever using them." Alex ordered. he got Morax's name from Dracula's head before he died, and knew he was planning something. And he's going to be on guard since Dracula and his Chimera failed to stop the Defenders.

"Hmmm, oh, by the way, I almost felt an animalistic urge take over me. What was that?" Alex questioned, narrowing his eyes.

[Your suppressed sexual frustration got an outlet, thus you acted like that] Oracle said, almost making him drop from the seat.

"What? You know what, never mind" Alex said, shaking his head. "Open the completed mission tab" He ordered.

{*Ding- Mission Complete- Lay off the Fangs!!

Rewards- 1 rare ticket, 2 normal tickets.

Bonus-(For stopping hellspawn) 1 rare ticket

current tickets- 2 rare tickets, 4 normal tickets}

"Huh, not bad, combine the normal ones but don't use any" Alex said to her. He already has his hands full understanding his divinity, he didn't need any more powers, especially not weak ones.

"How's the progress on your body?" Alex asked her.

[I need more info on the research of soul and death. I have enough data on life from mother Gaia and your Phoenix powers. Except that, creating organic nanites with vibranium, as a base is simple. Anti-metal and VII-metal is less compatible. I need data on Uru to finalize the process.] Oracle said, and Alex nodded to her.

Thinking back to when he was reborn and now, he saw a big difference in everything he did. From an excited reincarnator who wanted to be a hero and work with the heroes, he grew up watching, to being an overly cautious and aggressive anti-hero-like character. And he still felt that something was gonna go wrong if he relaxes for one bit, a burden from having a sixth sense. And he still didn't feel like he was strong enough.

Alex also wanted the three to move in with him because he knew the X-mansion would blow up every other day due to Stryker's efforts, and he didn't need them to be there. That would obviously blow out their's, as well as his identity, with more people associating him and Enigma.

"Oracle, open 8 projects to work on," Alex said and stood up.

[Done, any designations?] Oracle asked, curious seeing his serious face.

"Yes, split them into groups of four. Name the first four {Babylon}, {Arc}, {Flaw}, and {Four Force}. And the other four {Krakoa}, {Khaos},{Quantum} and {Illuminati}. it's time I get creative and take the lead rather than wait for things to happen." Alex said making clones and while updating the eight files telepathically to Oracle.

[Noted... Alex, I just received a notification from our Atlantis base] Oracle said, stopping him in his tracks.

"What is it." He asked.

[We found Lemuria] She said, making his eyes go wide hearing it.

*A distant Island, Earth*

In the pacific ocean, stood a lonesome island, which seemed to be surrounded by fog. The island looked like a quiet place to relax... too quiet. Because one cannot see any fauna on it, not even insects. And just below the island, was what could be described as an experimental facility. Tubes contain many animal species, as well as humans and mutants. In between them stood a man wearing a red exoskeleton, doing calculations. Reviewing his data for one last time, he looked at the tubes in front of him. One contained a man in his thirties, while the other contained a rhinoceros.

"Initiating test 25" He spoke in a robot-like voice and pressed the button. Both of them started convulsing inside the test tubes, as the rhinoceros' blood got mixed with a blue compound and entered the human. The man started to grow up and blood started pouring out of his eyes, while the crunching of bones echoed throughout the room. After a long while, in place of the man floated an abomination. A combination of a rhinoceros and a human, and unlike a human, and unlike Rhino who the Spider's faced, he looked more animal-like than human.

"Host has failed to retain characteristics yet again, but their powers have increased more than the last test. … possibility of the suit that the observed target wears to be responsible is large. Needs to be investigated" He said, and closed the folder, which had the icon of Rhino in his suit, getting out from a crater.

He then walked past a few other test tubes, which contained kids of various ages, except they were covered in hair, had multiple eyes and pincer in place of a mouth, with four legs jutting from their back. The tubes were labeled Spider-34 and Spider-35 respectively.

"All experiments have not been able to retain their physical appearance, unlike the observed targets. I'm possibly missing an ingredient to make the human DNA adaptable to genetic variations." He noted in his diary, the looked back and asked. "Welcome, I must say I wasn't expecting you here. didn't you go to get the DNA of a telepath?" He asked.

"You know well Herbert, I can be anywhere I want, whenever I want." A man came from the shadows and said. He looked like a tall and fit man, wearing a black suit and cape, but he looked anything but normal. His grey skin and blood-red eyes with a red crystal on his forehead gave him a sinister look.

"Indeed, though weren't you angry at your plans going astray?" 'Herbert' asked.

"Indeed I was. I never imagined the incompetent telepath to somehow erase the mental suggestion I placed on the Summer's brat. And even after controlling him to do it himself, the trace somehow disappeared. The man spoke with an annoyed face, while the screen in front of him showed three people. Scott Summers, Charles Xavier, and lastly, Jean Grey.

"But I ended up finding something unexpected because of that." His frown turned into a smile that would scare anyone looking at him, while the screen changed to show a group of kids having lunch in a school cafeteria. And above them showed their names. But also displayed if they had powers or not, and what they were.

'Herbert' looked and them and asked in a slightly surprised tone. "Spider Physiology? And experiment X-23?" He asked surprised, at the ones highlighted in blue, and then looked at the ones highlighted in red. "Chaos.. magic? and Phoenix Force?" He asked in a more confused tone since he knew his friend's targets. Then his vision turned to the one displayed in golden color. "That is Alexander Knight? The genius on par with Stark or Richards? And he has powers?? But why did you fill it with question marks?" He asked and looked at the man for an explanation.

The man's smile widened "Well what can I say, he is... an Enigma." He said pressed a button, which excluded the 8 highlighted kids and an image appeared below them. Of all 8 Defenders.

"He's Enigma? How do you know?" 'Herbert' asked, while the man pointed at a picture of Alex and the girls, while the next showed the photo of Enigma, Scarlet Witch, Nightclaw, and Phoenix.

"He fooled everyone well. Even I would have never found out. Neither he nor the spiders. But unfortunately for him, love makes everyone blind. And just changing hair color and getting a mask doesn't fool anyone if they already know of your powers." The man explained.

"I see, you made a relation between the host of Phoenix force and him. I believe this information would be valuable to the right people" 'Herbert' said.

"Indeed it would, but I am more interested in his secrets for now." The man said.

"So you're going to bait him with his identity?" 'Herbert' asked.

"No, for now, we will observe. You have your 4 targets and I have my four targets. After all, it would be a shame if someone told Stryker his precious weaponis in the hands of Knight. And he wouldn't take much time making relations with Nightclaw either, since he's more than aware of Weapon-X's capabilities. As for his alter ego, let's just say, he's going to have a busy time." The man said, looking at the footage of the Defenders fighting Vampires.

"I feel sorry for them. After all, your plans are as sinister as your name." 'Herbert' said to him.

The man smiled and said "Why thank you for the praise Herbert"

"I have told you, that I have abandoned my mortal name." 'Herbert' said.

"Ah, my apologies High Evolutionary."

*In Egypt, a small town*

A group of men wearing garbs moved through the streets and reached a house. They entered it and avoided it's inhabitants, who said nothing to them either. They moved to the back and lifted a tarp, which revealed a cave going down. Shutting the tarp again, they went inside.

And inside the place stood several men, waiting for the group. They quickly formed a circle and started chanting, sending their prayers to their lord. Which was represented by a small pyramid with golden inscriptions jutting out of the ground, which seemed to react to the prayers, but remained still, hiding what, or who lay hidden in it's depths.

*Stay tuned for more...*

**END of Volume 2**