The sky above the SHIELD base was clear—deceptively calm.
Inside the command center, glowing monitors blinked with satellite data, tactical readings, and surveillance logs. Agents walked briskly between terminals, each wrapped in their usual classified routines.
Until one of them frowned.
"Sir," a young tech called out, swiveling in her chair. "You asked us to keep an eye on the kid with the alien tech, right?"
Nick Fury turned his good eye toward her, coffee in one hand, paperwork in the other.
"Yeah. Kai. What about him?"
The agent tapped at her keyboard.
"Well… he's not showing up on any of our tracking satellites. Last ping was about twenty hours ago, somewhere near the outskirts of New York. Since then—nothing."
Fury's brow furrowed.
"Nothing, as in off-grid?"
"Not off-grid, sir. Gone. Like he doesn't exist on the planet anymore."
That got his attention.
He put the coffee down.
Stark mansion – 11:07 AM
Tony Stark stood at his personal bar, lazily stirring a mug of something probably not coffee. He stared at the screens in his living room: news reports, stock graphs, and… security feeds. One of them showed a quiet alley in Queens where Kai usually popped in and out to take flight.
Blank.
No motion for over a day.
He frowned.
"JARVIS," he called.
"Yes, sir?" the AI responded smoothly.
"When was the last time Kai showed up on our internal motion scans?"
There was a pause. That alone unnerved Tony.
"Kai's unique energy signature has not been detected for 27 hours and 36 minutes."
Tony set his mug down slowly.
"That's not like him…"
"Even if he takes a food trip to Singapore, he always pings somewhere."
He pulled out his phone and dialed.
"C'mon, kid. Pick up."
One ring. Two..
He tried again. This time, FaceTime.
"Nothing?"
JARVIS chimed in.
"No response on any frequency. Even the Omnitrix seems dormant."
That snapped Tony's posture straight.
"The Omnitrix is never dormant."
Clint was in the middle of grilling skewered chicken on the top of a city apartment rooftop, humming to himself. His phone buzzed.
"What now?"
He picked up.
Tony's voice came through, sharp and clipped.
"Kai's gone."
Clint blinked.
"Gone as in what? Ghost-mode again?"
"No. Gone as in no trace. No pings. No smart-ass delivery-boy remarks. No sushi selfies from Korea."
Clint flipped a skewer.
"You're sure?"
"SHIELD's not getting a trace either. Not even Fury."
Clint's joking tone dropped immediately.
"...You want backup?"
Tony hesitated.
"Let's wait for 12 more hours. If nothing turns up—we call in everyone."
Fury paced the room with his usual slow intensity.
"Still nothing?" he asked.
The technician shook her head. "We tried re-tracking the Omnitrix signal. Even the quantum scanner returned null."
Fury looked at the monitor showing Kai's last known location.
An alley.
Normal on the surface.
But the readings showed something wrong. Energy distortion. Spatial warping. Brief, but significant.
"What the hell did you step into, kid…"
Behind him, Agent Hill stepped forward.
"We've confirmed the last visual. There was a flash of green light—just for a second. Then everything went dark."
"Not teleportation. Not anything our sensors recognize."
Fury nodded slowly.
"Like someone yanked him off the board."
Tony sat in front of the watch they'd 3D scanned weeks ago—an Omnitrix hologram rotating slowly in the air.
"You've never let him vanish before," he said aloud, as if speaking to the device.
"What are you hiding, huh?"
He typed rapidly, enhancing signals, re-running Kai's voice logs, searching for clues. But all it did was remind him how much the kid had changed things.
Kai had never joined the Avengers officially.
But the guy had fought side-by-side with them.
He'd brought chaos. But also—heart.
Friendly neighborhood delivery boy.
Alien shapeshifter.
The one who always brought pani puri to interdimensional meetings.
Tony clenched his fists.
>L "You better not be dead, kid."
Behind him, the door opened.
Natasha stepped in silently.
She didn't speak at first.
Just watched Tony working with a strange focus.
"Still nothing?" she finally asked.
Tony didn't answer for a moment.
Then said quietly:
"I think something took him."
Fury stared at the map.
Still blank.
He tapped his fingers once on the desk.
Then reached for a locked drawer and opened it.
Inside was a black case. He popped it open.
A red alert signal button blinked slowly.
He pressed it.
A holographic message began broadcasting across multiple channels.
"To all SHIELD agents, classified clearance Alpha-One."
"Unusual energy disruption has been detected."
"Possible high-level alien interference."
"The individual codenamed 'Watchman' is missing."
"Begin Phase One global sweep."
Fury looked at the camera.
"We find him or we start preparing for what happens… if he doesn't come back."