S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters | Classified Location
The hum of fluorescent lights buzzed softly over the quiet tension of the command centre. Dozens of agents worked at terminals, eyes scanning incoming feeds, while holograms flickered with lines of data. The world never slept, and neither did S.H.I.E.L.D.
Inside the main briefing room, Director Nick Fury stood alone, arms crossed behind his back, eyes locked on a floating file projected midair. A deep breath escaped him. Another fire to put out.
The screen shifted—an image of a familiar man in a torn suit of improvised armor, standing in the middle of the desert, smoke and sand swirling around him.
**TONY STARK ESCAPES CAPTIVITY**
*Avenger Candidate – Further inspection required*
"He built that thing in a cave... with scraps of metal," Maria Hill said from the doorway, walking in with a tablet in hand.
Fury didn't glance back. "He's Howard's treasured son. Not surprising."
Hill stopped beside him, tapping the display. "He burned through a terrorist cell using a makeshift flamethrower, launched himself out of a canyon, and got picked up by one of our satellites, dragging half an engine behind him. The entire Middle East is scrambling."
Fury raised a brow. "Keep watching him, but he's not the top priority for now."
Hill hesitated. "You're thinking about the other thing?"
Fury turned, face unreadable. "Two weeks ago. In a quiet town, off the grid. Nobody cared for it until the sky opened up."
He gestured to the screen—now displaying shaky satellite footage. A meteor blazing through the atmosphere. Impact. Ground rupturing. Screams in the background.
Then came the crater.
And then—something stranger.
"It didn't just crash," Hill muttered. "It created a volcano."
Fury nodded. "And it hasn't cooled down since. The damn thing keeps getting hotter. No seismic logic. No magma vents. Like the planet's mad at something."
Hill swiped through additional reports. Locals evacuated. Casualties high. Terrain warped unnaturally. Aerial drones fried midair.
"Radiation's inconsistent. Geothermal readings are impossible. It's like something's alive down there..." she trailed off.
Fury's gaze lingered on the flickering footage of the still-rising volcano, shrouded in smoke and thunder.
"Two weeks," he muttered. "And it's still growing."
---
**Monticello, NY | Volcano**
From the depths of the volcano, the magma within bubbled, as if the volcano itself were breathing. Sometimes the mountain shook as various minerals fell into the magma, feeding properties into something hidden within.
Another week passed with activity from the volcano—until one morning, without any prior warning—
The entire continent shook as a massive earthquake struck, causing mass panic and widespread damage. The government and S.H.I.E.L.D., surprised by the sudden occurrence, mobilized emergency teams to mitigate panic and casualties.
The earthquake lasted for hours, only receding after nightfall. The sudden disaster shocked the global community, and in response, world governments extended aid to help the U.S. recover from the devastation.
But unbeknownst to anyone else... something had awoken from its slumber.
From within the volcano, the magma grew restless and chaotic as jets of molten rock shot toward the volcanic walls, melting and exposing more raw materials to feed into the depths.
And after the earthquake stopped, the magma slowly calmed... but deep within, something stirred.
A hand slowly reached out—rising ever so slowly from the depths.
Minutes passed.
Then the full figure emerged.
Vulkan, dark and towering, his colossal figure naked yet unburned, stood atop the scorching magma. His eyes scanned the surroundings—confusion and unfamiliarity in his gaze. He looked upward toward the sky, where the moon shone with gentle light.
"Where am I?" he asked himself.
In a single jump, he arrived at the top of the volcano, overlooking the unfamiliar world spread out before him. A strange, distant look glowed faintly in his eyes.
"This world feels clean... the warp, weak and untouched. The horrors I once knew—none."
He muttered calmly as he inhaled the clean air, fully embracing the peace he once sought in his own world.
Now it stood before him.
His gaze then turned toward the nearby village—its buildings cracked and broken, sorrow and panic filling the streets below.
"Such pure genes... untainted by chaos or xenos influence. But... they are weak... weaker than the ones I knew of."
He looked down at his rough, calloused hands and muttered to himself:
"This world does not need me. I am too dangerous for this world."
He clenched his hands into fists, his expression calm—but buried beneath it lay a feeling he could not name.
Turning silently, he descended back into the volcano. Though guilt weighed upon him for the deaths his arrival caused, he did not wish for anyone to know of his existence.
---
**S.H.I.E.L.D. Monitoring Outpost | Hudson Valley Sector**
*5 Weeks After Initial Incident*
Inside the hastily assembled command centre, rows of terminals hummed quietly beneath a mesh of tangled wires and dust-covered fans. The air carried a faint trace of smoke from the ever-burning mountain in the distance—a volcano that shouldn't exist, doing things it shouldn't be doing.
In the middle of the command tent, Agent Walters stood stiffly by his station, his gaze hard as he scrolled through the latest series of reports from the locals of Monticello. Despite the weeks that had passed, the townsfolk still whispered in fear, their accounts growing stranger with every visit. And now… something had changed.
He took a breath, steadying himself before tapping into the secure line.
"Director Fury, we have something you'll want to hear."
A few moments passed before the screen flickered to life.
Fury's eye stared back through the static-filled feed, arms crossed, jaw tight.
"This better not be another 'ghost story,' Walters," Fury muttered, his tone low and sharp. "You've been wasting my time for five weeks."
Walters nodded slightly, swallowing his nerves. "I thought the same at first. Locals talking about statues that vanish, shadows that stand in fire... I didn't buy it. Until the new seismic data came in. And until we reviewed this."
He turned his monitor towards the camera, playing a clip of nighttime thermal footage. Grainy, but visible. Something massive moved inside the volcano—not molten rock, not gas, not even magma.
It was shaped like a man. But it was far too large.
Too still.
Too deliberate.
Fury narrowed his eye, leaning in. "What am I looking at?"
Walters didn't answer right away. Instead, he began reading excerpts from his report.
"One of the survivors said it looked like a god. Another swore she prayed to it because of some instinct—like she had to. The rescue team saw it walk back into the fire. Not run. Not fall. Just… walked."
Fury's silence lingered for a moment, the weight of it pressing into the room.
"And?" he asked coldly.
Walters exhaled. "It doesn't give off heat, sir. Not when it moves. When it does, it actually cools the surrounding magma—just for a moment. Nothing on file matches this."
He tapped a few keys, and more scans filled the screen.
Fury's gaze darkened as he stared at the data, the volcano in the distance now pulsing like a slow heartbeat.
"Locals gave it a name."
Walters hesitated. "They call it a fire god."
Fury let out a quiet breath, his face unreadable.
"Gods, demons, mutants—call it whatever you want. But if something walked out of a crater like that… we either have a new threat…"
He paused, staring at the data again.
"…or something old finally woke up."
He turned towards someone off-screen. "Get me satellite footage of Monticello from two nights ago. I want weather patterns, energy surges, and a full bioscan of the area. And double-check the drone logs—anything that went dark before reaching the crater, I want it reconstructed."
Then he looked back towards Walters.
"Stay put. Keep the locals calm. If anything else stirs in that mountain, I want to know before it breathes."
Fury ended the feed.
The screen went black.
But behind Agent Walters, the monitor continued to blink with fresh seismic spikes.
The volcano… was stirring again.