Lost Soul

Chapter 2: Enderwalks Are Dangerous

Fury sat his desk, deep in thought. Goose softly purred on the back of his chair, kneading the smooth leather.

Out of the blue, a fist rapped on his office door.

"Enter," he commanded. In stalked one of his best agents, Maria Hill. Fury glanced up at her, noticed the file in her hand, and instantly a feeling of dread settled in his stomach.

"Good morning, Agent Hill," he greeted.

She slapped the file onto his desk, sliding it to him without so much as a hello. "Do you remember when we sent those pilots to check out that new country we found?" she questioned.

Fury nodded and opened the file, the very small file. It contained a very blurry photo of something that looked like a castle, and a short excerpt.

He pondered over this as Hill continued. "Well, they never returned."

"What?" He glanced up at her with an unreadable expression. "What do you mean, 'they never returned'?"

"Exactly that, sir." She grimaced. "It's like they just disappeared. We can't track them, and the satellites can't seem to capture a decent picture of the place."

"Have you tried sending ships?"

"Yes, sir," Hill replied. "Those dropped off the grid, too."

Goose clambered his way into Fury's lap, sensing his distress. Fury scratched the flerken's chin subconsciously.

"Do you want us to send more out?" Hill asked.

He waved her off. "That won't be necessary."

"But what are you going to do?"

The Director scooped Goose up in his arms with surprising gentleness, stood, and placed the imposter cat in the seat he previously sat in.

"Agent Hill," Fury commanded. "Assemble the Avengers."

:-:-:-:-:

Mellohi jerked awake, violet eyes alight with panic. She swiveled her head around wildly.

"Mellohi, calm!" Lavender commanded anxiously. Mellohi blinked out of her distress, her adrenaline levels slowly returning to normal. She heaved a sigh of relief.

Fully awake to her surroundings, Mellohi realized with a start that her blindfold had flew off when she was tossing and turning.

"Oh, dear," she mumbled. Rooting through the foliage she called her bed, Mellohi found her blindfold within moments. But as she went to slip it on, her voices called out.

"No!"

Mellohi flinched.

"Keep the 'fold off," Sebastian demanded.

"Please?" Lavender asked sweetly.

"We want to see colors again!" Dexter begged. "It's been ages since we saw anything other than purple."

"But-," Mellohi started.

"No buts!" Lavender interrupted, almost motherly. "There is literally no one else around! The sun isn't even up yet! We have plenty of time before we need to depart for the next village."