fics I read

Somewhere on the Arctic circle, Earth]

Solemn words echoed throughout the derelict superweapon.

"Tomorrow… Hydra will stand master of the world. Borne to victory on the wings of the Valkyrie…"

Crackling from some malfunctioning gramophone from the depths of the craft, the words echoed across the empty, frozen halls of this craft. The words seemed to have come from anywhere and nowhere at the same time. Finding the offending gramophone would have been an exercise in futility. In this massive aircraft that had one day been on the verge of laying waste to all the civilised world, it would have been like finding a needle in a frozen, snow-covered haystack. At least, it only tended to play some of the time.

"Our enemies' weapons will be powerless against us… If they shoot down one plane, hundreds more will rain fire upon them…"

It was like the words were taunts from a ghost. The captain of this massive plane who was still roaming the halls like a spectre that didn't want to rest. Clinging tightly to the precipice on which he had almost accomplished his goals.

"If they cut off one head, two more will take its place…"

"Hail Hy-"

*Clang*

Stever Rogers sighed as he carved another tally on the wall using the edge of his shield.

Day 2 of being all alone.

And almost above everything else, he hated being alone. Most of his worst days happened when no one else was there to give him a hand, or for him to give anyone a hand. Cut off from all help and cut off from helping. What use was this vibranium shield painted in red, white and blue when the only person he could use it to protect was himself? He didn't know how long he had been a popsicle for, but the Strategic Scientific Reserve wouldn't abandon him. He had faith in his allies who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him over the years of the war.

Colonel Phillips… Howard Stark… Peggy Carter…

They'll come looking for him sooner or later. He knew how hard it was mounting a rescue mission. How much more a rescue mission into the Arctic circle? He might be stuck here for a while. But what he really wanted was to go out there and start marching towards the direction of the frontlines, or maybe end up back home. Back to the good ole US and A. But this wasn't France or Germany or Africa.

This was the Arctic.

Hundreds of miles of nothing but ice and snow and certain death was waiting for him out there. He had taken a peek outside to check too. The blizzard out there would freeze him to death- Erskine's Serum or no Erskine's Serum. And that's why - despite how much he didn't like it- he had to stay in here, in this small storage room in the belly of the beast that he had almost died stopping.

The waiting was the hardest part of being a soldier. Just endless waiting punctuated by brief flashes of extreme violence.

But in this little storage room, at least he had everything he needed to survive the wait. A small bed that he had salvaged from the crew quarters. Right at the centre, he had set up a small heater/stove that he had from spare Tesseract-Energy ammunition to melt ice into drinkable water and to warm the room. And at the wall opposite of his bed, a stack of boxes reaching up as tall as him leaned against the metal wall. Each box contained German MREs which meant that he had enough food to last him months. And he had to admit, even to himself, that those little tins of 'Scho-Ka-Kola' chocolate that came with each MRE actually won out over the hard candy that the US Army's field rations were supplied with.

All in all, this was actually a much cozier accomodation than most field barracks that he had slept in so far.

And when he had his main and immediate concerns of water, food and shelter met, he had also made the effort to reestablish contact with the chain of command. Searching for working radios was easy enough. Getting them to work was slightly more difficult. But getting someone to pick up on the other end? That was out of his hands.

And so, it was just more waiting. All he could do to be honest. He had no way of knowing how long it's been. His only measure of time was a clock that he had only recently got up and running. It felt like he was a prisoner. But at the very least, he had stopped Hydra's last plan.

There was just one last mystery he hadn't solved yet.

Steve looked down to the strange metal ball that he held in his gloved hand. A shiny metal ball just slightly smaller than a lemon- with six stars embossed on its otherwise mirror smooth surface.

"Where did you come from?" He whispered to the object that had thawed him out of the ice. Steve wasn't sure if it was a piece of debris from elsewhere on the ship- it didn't match anything here on the plane. Was this some kind of Hydra tech he hadn't seen before? And even more mysterious was how it managed to thaw him out in the first place. It was oddly warm to touch despite the room temperature hovering around zero, but it wasn't hot enough to melt through ice.

He lifted the ball up, trying to get a better look at it before-

Power

Power like nothing Steve had ever felt before exploded from the orb- it was even worse than when he had Erskine's serum injected into him in Stark's Vita-ray chamber. It felt like it was burning him from the inside out. His skin feeling like it was being deep fried. His skull felt like molten metal was being poured over it. Each and every single one of his muscles screamed in pain.

And then came a more familiar feeling.

That feeling of immense strength bubbling up from his muscles. Might. The feeling like he could leap over houses with a single bound. The feeling like he could hurl his shield so hard to pierce concrete walls. The feeling like each punch he threw could dent even the armour of tanks. Makes. He felt like he could go faster than ever before. Like he could pluck the wings of a fly one at a time. Like he could outrun motorbikes and cars with ease. Right. It didn't feel so cold anymore. It barely even felt chilly. And somehow Steve just knew that he could withstand fire and cold as if they were a hot autumn day or a chilly spring afternoon.

Then it was over as abruptly as it started. He was back in that little storage room in the Hydra Valkyrie plane. The voice of his defeated archnemesis echoing once again in the background.

"Tomorrow… Hydra will stand master of the world. Borne to victory on the wings of the Valkyrie…"

"W-what was that?!" Steve breathlessly panted from the rush as he glanced down to the innocuous metal ball with its six stars. He was gripping it so tight that it would have bent steel, and yet… the ball looked undented.

"Our enemies' weapons will be powerless against us…"

"The plot thickens with you, doesn't it?" He rhetorically asked the ball in his hand. But that wasn't going to help him. He was still trapped on this plane until help arrived. Just listening to the voice of the Red Skull droning on and on about his evil plan that Steve had already foiled. The Valkyrie was never going to see itself in the air again.

"If they shoot down one plane, hundreds more will rain fire upon them…"

Steve stood up- the snow crunching beneath his boots. Wait… that's right. Wasn't there little flying aircraft that were meant to be ejected from this plane? Those 'Hydra Parasit' as the documents they've retrieved from the Hydra bases had called them. He marched out of the room and to the bomb bays where there were several of those 'Parasit' bombcrats left. Like the name would suggest it was shaped like an aircraft bomb, slightly larger than your average roadster and should have had the one-way range of about 1000-1800km. Walking over to the nearest one, he brushed the snow off the side.

"If they cut off one head, two more will take its place…"

And Steve smiled at the irony of it all.

"Boston, Massachuesettes." He read the words painted on the side of the bombcraft. "This one might still reach its destination. Just need some takeoff gear, and a runway. And If I remove the warhead, it might just be light enough for its small fuel capacity to reach Boston. Setting it all up might take a day or two, but it's not like I have anything better to do than eat German chocolates all day."

He'll keep the SOS from his radio on a loop while he worked on this, but having a solid plan was always a relief.

"It's worth a shot." he thought out loud, "Worst case scenario is that I'll end up in Canada. My French should be passable if a bit rusty."

He reached for his compass and realised that when the plane crashed, he had likely lost it along with the photo that he had kept.

"Peggy, I still owe you that dance." He spoke with a sigh before bringing up that metal ball out of his pocket instead. His blue eyes stared at it hard.

"And you are coming with me to SSR." He muttered to the lustrous metal ball. "Stark will love to take a crack at whatever you are."

"Hail Hydra!"

[The Ten Rings Headquarters, Somewhere in Asia]

Mattias 'Razor Fist' Xu knelt before the throne of his leader- the Mandarin, his adoptive father and founder of the Ten Rings.

And between them, sitting on a small cedar table, was a shiny metal ball just slightly smaller than a lemon- a set of four stars embossed on its otherwise mirror smooth surface.

The silence that permeated the throne room was making Mattias nervous to be honest. He liked to think he was a pretty big guy at 6' 4" (193cm) and over 200 pounds of pure muscle. But under the ancient eyes of his adoptive father who couldn't have been taller than 5'7" (170cm), he still felt like that small orphan boy on the streets of Romania.

And despite how they had no clue as to why they were assembled here, the gathered ranks of the Ten Rings stood in disciplined attention around them like the well-trained military battalion that they were. The Mandarin didn't pay anyone any mind though- he just continued to stare at the small metal ball appraisingly… before finally breaking the oppressive silence.

"Describe the dream that you had again, Mattias." His adoptive father commanded with a voice weightier than Mt. Tai, and Mattias obeyed.

"Last night I dreamed that I woke up in a dark, barren world." He began- keeping his head bowed, "The red sun in the sky was blocked in a permanent eclipse. All around, there was nothing but dark sand and shallow ponds… except for a mountain of black rock that towered up into the sky."

There was no audible muttering among the gathered men of the Ten Rings. They were too disciplined for that. But the way their eyes glanced at each other and made their subtle movements told Mattias that they were wondering where he was going with this dream. Mattias had seen some really weird shit during his time training and operating under the Mandarin. He'd fought all across the world, helped topple regimes, set up new ones, he'd even seen the legendary magical artefact that was Ten Rings itself in action. But this dream took the cake.

"Huge metal chains- each link the size of a house- stretched out from the horizons to secure something at the top of the mountain. And I felt drawn to climb the mountain. A seemingly never-ending set of stairs carved right into the ash-covered black stone. And at the summit of the mountain, I found a great dragon. A giant western-style dragon with scales that gleamed like metal. Larger than entire stadiums. Its limbs and wings were secured by those great chains. But most of all, it was fast asleep."

And still the throne room was silent, and the lingering fog of doubt still remained. However, Mattias was not about to disobey his master/adoptive father. So, he continued with his tale.

"Then a young girl garbed in strange clothings of purple and black swooped down from the sky on black raven's wings, and landed right beside the slumbering dragon's great maw. She looked straight at me with her eyes of sparkling emerald, and introduced herself."

"Her name was 'Fischl' and she regaled me of her many titles which I could no longer remember, but I do remember the titles 'The cursed Sentinel-Eternal of the Sakaarian Twilight Realm' and 'Keeper of the Stalwart Chains.' She also spoke of the sleeping dragon whose name could be closest translated to human language as 'The Heavenly Metal Dragon God Star Emperor.' "

"This Fischl spoke of how we mortals were all frogs in a well. Gazing uncomprehendingly at what little of the heavens we could see. But out of all who sit under heaven, I was an honoured one. And in my dream, she presented me with this orb. I beseeched her to explain what these orbs were and she answered that these orbs were the final, dying tears of long-dead stars crystalized in a form mortal minds could comprehend. These were seven keys that locked the Stalwart Chains of her Dragon God and kept him from ascending to the heavens beyond the heavens to battle his hated rivals as was ordained by the principles established in the before-times."

"By merely bearing this key, I am granted the smallest silver of the Dragon God's power, but as are six others. The keys seek each other out- pointing their bears towards each other. And whosoever gathers all seven keys shall be rewarded with their heart's desire by the grateful Dragon God… then I awoke. I woke to such immense Power that it felt like it would tear my body apart as some of the others in the barracks would attest. And when the surge of power receded, I found this orb laying on my chest, and immediately brought it to you, master."

"Demonstrate to the others the powers that orb grants you, Mattias." His father ordered while nodding to some attendants to the side to bring a thick steel beam to the centre of the throne room.

Following orders, Mattias picked up the small orb and placed it to the metal stump of his arm where it was securely held by the metal locks. And with a mere flex of his will, a solid blade of bright orange fire immediately sprang from the stump. It shifted across several fiery weapons: an axe, a whip, a spiked mace, a giant clawed hand… before finally settling on a simple Chinese dao broadsword. With a single effortless swing, Mattias bisected the steel beam as if it wasn't there.

Silence filled the room as the Mandarin allowed them to digest all the information. Then a junior member garbed in a plain black uniform- very brazenly and very foolishly- spoke the words that were lingering in all their minds…

"Isn't this just the plot of Dragon Ball?"

And in barely a blink of an eye, their leader launched a ring at the one who spoke that- sending him skidding across the grounds.

"Do not speak out of turn!" their ancient leader admonished the fallen member. "However, he is not incorrect. This does indeed sound like Dragon Ball. The original manga, I may add."

And Mattias held back a sigh, it still took him aback at times knowing that his adoptive dad knew this much about anime culture. This few thousand year old living myth and legend actually knew what Dragon Ball was, and even watched the whole saga. All this despite it being Mattias himself who was forced to explain to him the concept of anime and Dragon Ball to him after someone secretly smuggled a hard drive with all the series on it.

"However…" The Mandarin's firm voice spoke, "I will remind you all that many of modern day myths have their basis in actual people and objects- I would know, I am some of them. There is a possibility that the creator of the Dragon Ball manga, Toriyama-dono, secretly knows something more to this."

There was a sharp intake of breath all across the throne room as everyone figured out where this was going.

"Team Tiger, you are to fly to Japan to question him, but no permanent injuries." the Mandarin commanded to their elite assassination team- his voice climbing in volume, "But if he is too injured to continue Dragon Ball, I will pluck your eyes from your skulls and feed them to the ravens!"

The Mandarin cleared his throat before continuing- much more calmly this time.

"Also, my mint first edition copy is in the library, have him sign it and make it out to 'Wen'." He instructed Team Tiger, and that reminded Mattias of something. So, he raised his hand.

"Yes, Mattias?" His adoptive father asked calmly.

"Can I have my Dragon Ball Z copy signed too?" He tried to ask in his steadiest voice, and the Mandarin merely sighed.

"Very well," He graciously replied, "Whoever wishes to have their copies signed by Toriyama-dono, approach Team Tiger after this meeting."

There were murmurs of excitement among the crowds at the order.

And despite the threat of having their eyes plucked if they go too far, Mattias could still feel how Team Tiger was vibrating with excitement. A several week long, all-expenses paid trip to Japan to stalk and kidnap a world-famous mangaka? They were going to be the envy of the entire Ten Rings, and also their pity. Everyone was likely going to saddle them with their wishlists. Mattias himself needed the latest issue of Shonen Jump, and getting it fresh off the presses instead of having to do a long wait for it to ship overseas was always a treat.

"For those that will remain in the compound…" their master began, "Everyone is required to watch the entire saga from start to finish, and be prepared to aid Mattias."

He was ordering them to binge watch anime on company time? Well, Mattias wasn't going to complain. In fact, he knew for certain that no one in the Ten Rings was going to complain about that.

"Mattias, you must embark on this journey to find the rest of the Dragon Balls." His adoptive father commanded him- his steady brown eyes locking onto Mattias' blue ones, "Seek out the bearers of the other Dragon Balls, and when you do… know that you have our organisation's full might at your back."

"And keep a record of your journey." His adoptive father advised him, "We may be living in an actual anime and this is our chance to see it serialised before anyone else."

Mattias struggled to keep the fanboying in his head. He was a one-armed ninja with a blade for a hand, trained by a secret and ancient organisation and now he's going on a quest to gather the real life Dragon Balls! Holy fuck.

And as he walked off the compound, he heard it. The entire compound had come to see him off in their own way. About three hundred ninjas all garbed in different shades of black, shadow blue and shadow purple were standing on the roofs of the compound jumping and cheering and playing the Dragon Ball Z opening theme from their boomboxes.

And Mattias merely tipped his bamboo hat to them to hide his tears of happiness at how his entire family had come to cheer for him.

"Cha-La! Head-Cha-La!" He quietly sang along as he walked off into the sunset- his dark cape coolly fluttering behind him. Maybe he can get his manga named 'Razorfist.' Now all he needed was a smart and strong love interest like Bulma or Videl or maybe Android 18!

"Thank you for this opportunity, O' Heavenly Metal Dragon God Star Emperor." He prayed to the orb embedded into his arm, "I will earn my wish by freeing you from your Stalwart Chains."

Mattias Xu, the main character of his own Shonen anime adventure! He was living the dream!

[Texas, USA]

Clint Barton felt like he was just your normal family man- living the dream of that normal life.

He had a gorgeous wife and two beautiful kids that he adored. He had a nice homestead in Iowa, a stable job that had great benefits, some friends here and there.

But his job did get boring sometimes.

Clint- or 'Agent Hawkeye'- watched on the tablet as the SHIELD patrol of snowmobiles cruised through blizzard over the knee-deep snow that blanketed the ground. He waited until the patrol disappear behind the thick curtain of snow fall before he went back to his favourite pastime. Peeking out of his tent, he drew his bow and loosed an arrow at the bullseye he had hung on a tree 200m downrange.

"Never thought I'd hate Texas for its snowy weather." he muttered completely miserable as he spotted that his arrow was a whole third-inch off target. "Damn blizzard's throwing off my aim."

Clad in the thick, fur-lined winter uniform of a SHIELD agent, Clint was definitely not feeling like a happy camper as he stood guard on a small covered platform halfway up a cell tower. The makeshift tent that he had erected proved to have been less than insulating against the blizzard winds.

"All this for a hunk of space rock." He grunted as he tucked his hands under his arms to keep them warm.

Because just before the freak blizzard arrived here on Texas, SHIELD groundside radar detected a meteorite impacting in the Texan wilderness. Director Fury- not one to believe in coincidences- called the meteorite a possible 0-8-4, a SHIELD code for an object of unknown origin, and ordered them to retrieve it. Unfortunately, the precise impact site was lost in the super blizzard and they had to resort to sending out teams to dig around like they were searching for buried treasure- which wasn't far off to how it felt at the moment.

Worse yet, he couldn't realistically wear any more layers without turning himself into a sitting duck that couldn't even draw his bow, and if he was going to make his tent any warmer, he may as well put on a neon sign on his location announcing 'SHIELD Lookout here! Target me first with all your heat-seeking missiles!'

"It's almost as cold as that op in Siberia with Nat." he groused. And his thoughts couldn't help but go back to his partner. His now very pregnant partner who was very much not on the roster anymore. Not for the next eight months at least.

"SHIELD's best infiltration agent… on maternity leave." Clint muttered as he stuck his hands under his arms to warm them, "Who would have thunk it?"

Still, it was good that Nat personally called him herself to deliver the news of her pregnancy.

If Clint had received the news from anyone else that the conception of Natasha's baby was… less than consensual? They both knew that he would have gone AWOL just to hunt that sonuvabitch down himself. And if he was being completely honest, he had mixed feelings about Natasha's decision to keep the child, but he had never heard her so furious at even bringing up the option at all. Nat's shouting was still ringing in his ear after that particular call. He felt that Fury's advice was right for this one. At the end of the day, they were just concerned third parties, the choice was ultimately hers to make. And boy had she had her mind set!

"Natasha… with an actual family of her own." Clint mused, and he couldn't help but smile for his friend. "Yeah, she always dreamed about that idea… never thought she'd get that chance, but here we are. But I get it, Nat… I really do."

After all, he had a family of his own. And the prospect of having a baby- your own flesh and blood- on the way? Just the thought changes something in a person. The changes differ from person to person, but the change is always there. And speaking of the family… Clint fished out a small notepad from his pocket and checked his shopping list.

"Got to remember to bring back that authentic cow leather cowboy hat for my boy..." Clint muttered as he ran his icicle of a finger over the list, "Leather cowboy boots for my missus… size seven and at least three pairs in different styles. And for my little princess, she wants a… pony? Yeah right. Can't she want the new iPhone like all the normal little girls her age?"

And it was at that precise moment, his in-ear comms crackled with an incoming transmission.

"Agent Hawkeye, do you read?!" Agent Coulson- the commanding officer for this operation in Texas- notified him urgently, and Barton immediately tucked his shopping list back in his pocket.

It was game time.

"Agent Hawkeye reading you loud and clear, sir." Clint reported with a grunt as his thickly-gloved hands pulled up a reinforced black tablet. A tablet that was linked to thermal sensors on his little roost atop this cell tower he was on, if anything warmer than a snowman walked within a 4-mile radius of his camp, he'd see them.

"Any thermal signatures coming up?" Coulson's voice questioned through Clint's in-ear comms.

"Sir, I'm getting no readings on the thermal sensors." He reported, swiping through the sensor feeds. "Nothing apart from the SHIELD outpost that is…"

And immediately, Clint realised what was wrong: Didn't he just watch a snowmobile patrol pass by a few minutes earlier?

"Check again at azimuth 170." Coulson instructed him, and he angled the sensors to focus to the south of south-east. And he found… nothing. The tablet's screen showed him but nothing violet- nothing warmer than snow was out there.

"Still nothing, sir." He reported back to Agent Coulson- unsure if that was good news or bad, "No heat sources at all: No snowmobile engines, no body heat from wildlife, not even hot gun barrels… nothing."

There was a stretch of silence as Agent Coulson didn't respond- likely coordinating with the others at the SHIELD outpost.

"We haven't had any call-ins about vehicular breakdowns, so it's likely that our snowmobile patrol team has been taken out." Coulson concluded- the tightness in his voice making his anger at losing good men and women apparent.

"Possibility that it's faulty comms, sir?" Clint tried to calm down his commanding officer.

"Faulty comms?" the older man parroted, "From all eight of them? I don't think so. Got any ideas on how these snow ghosts managed to eliminate everyone without showing up on the thermal sensors?"

Clint thought about it for a moment- his blue eyes peering out of his tent and into the heavy blizzard.

"Well, sir… unless we have ice giants attacking us, our patrol likely fell from sniper fire coming from beyond the thermal sensor's 4 mile radius. So, I recommend sounding the alarm- the outer perimeter seems to have been breached."

"Fine, I'll sound the alarm." Coulson immediately replied, "Regroup at the outpost, agent; but leave the thermal sensors running, we may need them yet. Report to me directly when you get here."

"Will do, sir. Agent Hawkeye out." Clint responded, already moving to pack up everything inside his tent into his hiking backpack. "Portable oven top, check. C4 explosives, check. Coffee thermos, check. Sleeping bag, che-"

*Clink*

And just as he was hurriedly folding his sleeping bag up, something fell out of it and onto the metal grating. Clint's sharp eyes immediately saw what it was: A shiny metal ball just slightly smaller than a lemon- with five stars embossed on its otherwise mirror smooth surface. Curiously, he scooped it onto his hand. It was still warm to touch, so it must have spent the night with him in his sleeping bag. And it hadn't killed him, so it wasn't a bomb. It was pretty light too- so likely aluminium. And it felt too solid to be a listening device, so…

"Looks like a knick-knack. Must belong to one of the guys back at base." he muttered as he placed it in his winter coat's pocket. And just like that, he began the climb down the cell tower's pretty sparse ladder. The three minute climb down felt like an hour as the blizzard wind was beating away at him like a boxer was punching at him through his thick fur coat.

"I hate Texan blizzards." He grunted as he finally reached the bottom to where his own snowmobile was parked- almost completely buried in snow now.

But thankfully, the snowmobile started just fine.

And he soon found himself speeding through the Texan woodlands deep in winter. But of course, he kept his bow out and his eyes peeled. That SHIELD patrol got ambushed on their snowmobiles just miles away from where he currently was. But at least, he felt a bit safe in the woods. This forest filled with its tall Texas oak trees should obscure most sightlines against snipers, but it would work against him and his bow if he got engaged in close range. But it's not like he was going to run into any-

"Ice giants!" He shouted in disbelief as a group of them appeared from behind the snow-covered oaks tree. Their chiselled blue-skinned physique stood shirtless at a towering 10 feet (3m) tall, and judging from the toothy snarls they were aiming at him, they didn't look particularly happy to see him.

Naturally, Clint's first course of action was to make a sharp U-turn away.

"C'MON! I was just kidding about the ice giants!" He roared up into the sky to whatever god had decided to take a dump on him today. Immediately, he used the emergency channel in his in-ear comms.

"Uh, SIR!?" He shouted over the howl of the blizzard. "I found the guys who ambushed the patrol team, or more accurately, they found me!"

"Agent, do you have a visual of your assailants!?" Coulson immediately asked just as Clint saw them sprinting towards him in the side mirrors of his snowmobile. His trusty bow already in hand, he loosed an arrow at one of the giants at the distance- striking the lead giant on the chest. But it did no damage whatsoever as the arrow merely bounced off the charging giant's chest as if the arrow was made of foam.

"Dammit! I sure do, sir!" Clint responded- glancing behind him to the giants that were somehow almost keeping up with his snowmobile, "They're big! And blue! And ten-feet-tall! And-"

And Clint made a turn just in time to dodge a massive spear of ice launched at him.

"-They throw spears of ice as big as lamposts!" He shouted into his comms- his voice starting to lose its cool as more and more of them sprinted out from the forest. He unholstered his pistol and unloaded the whole magazine on the closest giant and succeeded… in slightly injuring him. Just grazes and shallow wounds.

"Dammit, the pistol's calibre is too small!" Clint grunted as more and more ice spears rained down around him, but thankfully, he was gaining a bit more distance from them. "Sir? Got about twenty of them sprinting after me! Could use some backup right about n- Oof!"

Unfortunately, an ice spear landed just in front of him and he was unable to turn the snowmobile in time- sending him flying off and skipping across the thankfully soft snow.

Thankfully, his bow wasn't damaged either- letting him loose another arrow. And Clint watched as the incendiary arrow struck another unafraid giant, but this time, the arrow ignited on impact and burned a 2000C hole through the ice giant's chest. A smoke-filled croak escaped its lips before it collapsed falling into the snow. The good news was that they weren't invulnerable, but the bad news was that was his only incendiary arrow.

"Woah!" Clint exclaimed as he dove into the snow to just barely avoid the volley of ice spears as they stuck to the ground all around him.

And it was then that Clint knew that things weren't looking too good. Nineteen giants in front of him, goodness knows how many more in the forest around him. His main and secondary weapons didn't work on them. The thigh-deep snow couldn't let him move at walking speed, much less run. His in-ear comms fell out as well. But he wasn't out of options just yet- he had some C4 in his pack. …Which- if his eyes didn't deceive him- were all the way over there with his totaled snowmobile.

Alright, so maybe he was completely out of options.

As for Clint himself? Well, he wasn't some supersoldier. He wasn't like Captain America. He didn't have the strength of ten men, or a shield made of the rarest metal on earth. All he had were steady hands, really good eyesight and some skill with the bow… A bow that had snapped in half under an ice spear.

"Can't die here…" He grunted as pushed himself off the snow and onto his feet, "Nat and the missus would kill me if I did."

The shadows of his would-be killers were visible in the distance through the blizzard's snowfall as they casually approached. This was their element and they knew it.

Never before had he felt so helpless- so powerless, and so human and so fragile. But most of all… never before had he so badly wished that he could fight like Captain America. He wished for even a fraction of that power. Not so that he can go around punching nazis in France like Captain America did, Clint just wanted the power to come home to his wife and kids.

And that's when he felt it.

"Aaagghh!" He grunted from the pain of something searing the skin on his leg. The metal ball that he had picked up became increasingly hot- so hot that it felt like it was going to burn a hole through his leg. And he hurriedly jammed his hand into his pocket to dump the ball into the snow. But no sooner did his gloved fingers wrap around the ball…

Power

Power like nothing Clint had ever felt before exploded from the metal ball- it was like someone had stuffed an entire tornado into a syringe and shot it straight into his arteries. Every nerve in his body screamed in victory, every muscle burned with strength, and his bones ached like they were being glued together with pure metal. His eyes itched as his vision grew sharper- able to pick out even the details of the ice giant's tattoos through the heavy snowfall. His ears throbbed as crisp sound began reaching once deaf left ear.

Then the mother of all adrenaline rushes came.

He no longer cared if these giants were ten-feet-tall or a hundred! Might. It didn't matter if there were twenty of them or a thousand! Clint motherfucking Barton wasn't abandoning his wife to a life without her husband, nor was he going to abandon his kids! Makes. He'll take down these giants! He'll take them all down with his bare fists if that's what it took! No one stood between him and his family! No one! And this incredible surge of strength rekindled something deep inside him- an ambition. Right. And his ambition? He was going to give his family the best life they can possibly have! He was going to make the world a better place!

Not knowing why- only knowing that it 'felt right,' Clint gripped that metal ball tightly in his palm as he lifted it out of his pocket. And immediately, the ball molded itself within his hand- stretching out itself this way and that until Clint found himself holding a solid metal bow complete with a bowstring.

And looking at his new weapon, Clint gave an incredulous laugh as he shook his head.

"This is definitely one of those insane over-the-top comic book superhero moments." He grunted, just rolling with weird magic as he lightly test-plucked the bowstring of his new bow with a finger, "But I'm not complaining. Last chance, giants. Surrender and SHIELD will treat you fairly."

Somehow, Clint just knew that he could take them on. That he could take them all on.

And watching him with bright red eyes were those blue ten-feet-tall ice giants as they stood in the howling blizzard. They bared their teeth at him as the frost swirled in their hands to form swords, axes and spears made of pure ice. And despite him being armed with a bow again, they continued to advance- fully intent on overwhelming them with numbers as they burst into movement.

And so did Clint.

Clint didn't know what exactly the metal ball did to his eyes, but he did see the results. His blue eyeballs saw it all in fact: He saw all 26 ice giants behind the blinding white curtain of heavy snowfall,, he saw the first ice giant crunched the snow as he took the first step forward, he saw every detail of those intricate tattoos that snaked all over the ice giant's torso and finally… Clint saw the precise moment when his arrow pierced through the spiral-shaped tattoo over the ice giant's heart and straight out his back.

90 metres. That's all Clint had between him and the charging giants. He nocked another arrow.

"You had all better stop!" Clint shouted the warning to the rest of the giants. Not that it did anything though, they barely glanced at the collapsing giant before they were charging at him with their red eyes focused straight at him and their basketball-sized fists clenched around the handles of the massive ice weapons they're intending to murder Clint with.

70 metres. Two giants stumbled dead into the snow with arrows through their eye sockets.

50 metres. Two more giants fell as Clint's new magic bow launched arrows at speeds that shouldn't be possible with normal physics. The bow was launching arrows with almost as much energy as a bullet.

30 metres. Four more giants fell, and their eighteen friends were still unharmed. And despite the clear upgrade with his weapon, Clint started thinking of ways out of this. Because the rest of the giants were now raising weapons over their heads, intent on hacking him into bloody bits on the snow-

*BLAM*

-but stopped in their tracks as a shot whistled over their heads.

"Frost Giants!" A new voice bellowed from the distance as the muffled thudding of a horse in full sprint announced the newcomer's approach.

On a muscled-up brown warhorse, his ally arrived- the portrait of the quintessential cowboy looking like he had jumped out of those old-style western movie posters. From the cowboy hat to the spurred leather boots to the riding chaps, this guy was the most cowboy anyone could ever be. Not surprising that one would be wandering around despite the SHIELD cordon, this was Texas after all. But what did surprise Clint was how the 'Frost Giants' reacted to the mounted horseman's arrival.

"Thor Odinson." The frost giant at the head of them growled with their deep voice as they clearly recognised the cowboy by face. "How fortuitous. We held the faint hope that we would encounter you on our quest here on Midgard… We will behead you just as you had done to our leader Laufey, then leave your corpse for the ravens."

And all Clint could wonder was 'how and why was a Texan cowboy enemies with these frost giants?'

"This war is between Asgard and Jotunheim," This 'Thor' replied as he trotted his horse between Clint and the giants- the cowboy's blue eyes glancing at Clint for a brief moment before looking back to the giant, "Leave the people of Midgard out of this."

The frost giants snarled at the cowboy for the suggestion.

"The realm of Midgard will be sufficient reparations for the treachery of your 'King Loki.' the lead Frost Giant scowled, "But, all the same, we shall retrieve the Casket of Ancient Winters after your 'King Loki' reneged on his bargain and attempted to steal it back from us."

"No!" Clint heard Thor vehemently denied, "Loki would never-"

"Strike a deal with us?" the Frost Giant offered with a mocking sneer, "Sell your slumbering father's life in exchange for our aid in conquering the rest of the Nine Realms? You brutish, but naive prince. It will be our pleasure to cure you of your ignorance… permanently."

"Loki will answer for this." Thor promised before aiming his eyes at the frost giants, "However, that can wait until after your defeat."

And the frost giants grinned a vicious grin that told Clint that they knew something he didn't.

"The power of your hammer is no longer yours to command, Son of Odin." he heard them taunt the cowboy whose face fell silent. "You are without your greatest strength."

"Mjolnir is no longer mine to wield, that is true." Thor's soft whisper rang clear even through the blizzard winds, then his voice rose in a jubilant shout. "But I am not without the means to defend myself! Behold, my new hammers!"

And with that shout, he upholstered two large revolvers- polished and gilded with gold- from his hip and raised them high above his head.

"The Járngreipr!" He proclaimed with a triumphant grin. "The 500th weapon in the arsenal of the legendary Midgardian warsmiths, Smith and Wesson!"

"I am Thor, Son of Odin! Guardian of the Lone Star Realm!" the cowboy announced- aiming his revolvers at the giants. "And for as long as I have breath in my chest and strength in my arms, you shall not mess with Tex-As!"

And for some inexplicable reason, Clint saw that the frost giants were looking seriously intimidated by cowboy Thor's revolvers more than they ever had when Clint shot them with his own pistol. Maybe the higher calibre was far more threatening to them?

But the frost giants seemed to find their balls as they just snarled back at the cowboy.

"Son of Odin, we shall-"

Anyway, Thor started blasting.

*BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM*

"YEEEEEEEE HAAWWW!" Thor shouted triumphantly with his strange accent over the thunder of his revolvers. And Clint took that as his cue to also start loosing arrows as well.

The initial barrage of .50 calibre bullets and magically-accelerated arrows saw many of the giants crumpling to the ground dead. However, that didn't deter the rest of them- fearlessly surging into action. Some managed to hurl their spears of ice, others with their icy weapons in hand charged him and Thor. Still, Clint noticed that they were cutting through those frost giants like a hot knife through butter, and he wasn't too prideful to admit that this 'Thor' was shooting down giants faster than Clint could.

But out of the corner of his sharp eye, Clint noticed something strange about his new ally. Because though he wasn't the most knowledgeable when it came to guns (Nat was), he was still sure that no revolver in the current market didn't sound like actual thunder or had the muzzle flash that looked like blue lightning. But maybe the guy who was using the magic shape-shifting bow shouldn't throw stones about peculiar weapons.

Then a shadow moved in the corner of his eye, and Clint turned just in time to see a giant that had circled around to attack him from the rear- a plan that had seemingly worked because Clint didn't have an arrow currently nocked.

"Raagggghh!" A frost giant roared over Clint as the giant's icy axe swung down in an over-head aimed to split Clint head-to-toe. Reflexively, he brought up the metal bow in an effort to block or at least deflect the attack. Clint had expected the bow to not break- magic as it was, meanwhile his fragile human bones would break from the force. So imagine the look on his face when the bow took the giant's axe swing head on, and all Clint felt was a gentle push on the bow. The frost giant apparently didn't expect it either- hesitating just for a full second.

*BLAM*

And a second was all Thor needed to put a bullet through the giant's cranium.

"Oof!" Clint grunted out as the giant's ten-foot-tall heavy body crumpled on top of him. He was pretty sure that the metal ball enhanced his strength. Enough to not get completely crushed by the half-tonne corpse, but not to the point where he could push it off him.

Thankfully, his new ally, Thor, helped with that- dismounting from his horse and gave the corpse an almost casual push. And Clint sighed in relief on the snow.

"Are you injured, bowman?" Thor asked as he extended a hand to Clint.

"Considering all the surprises today? Surprisingly uninjured." Clint grunted back as he took the offered hand- hoisting him up to his feet again. "And call me Clint."

"Well met, Clint!" Thor smiled back- tipping his leather cowboy hat to him.

Then came the awkward part, because SHIELD protocol dictates that he take Thor in for questioning. Alienating or engaging Thor didn't seem to be the brightest idea, but Clint knew that SHIELD needed someone who actually knew what the hell was going on. So, all Clint could do now was ask as politely as he could.

"Hey… Thor was it?" Clint called out to the cowboy, "These guys seemed to know you. Would you mind if you come with me back to our outpost and fill us in on… all this?"

He spread his arms to gesture to all the dead frost giants laying in the snow around them.

"Outpost?" Thor repeated- a serious look coming to his features and his blue eyes peering at Clint from underneath the brim of his cowboy hat, "You are a sworn defender of the Lone Star Realm?"

And despite being a bit weirded out by the strange choice of words, Clint nodded.

"Texas is within our jurisdiction to protect, yes?" he informed the cowboy- glad that he didn't have to lie about it. It was true after all: SHIELD did have jurisdiction over all fifty-states. And special, provisional jurisdiction in a few other places as well.

"Then take me to your commander." Thor immediately urged him, "We must warn him of the frost giants' plot! The Casket of Ancient Winters must be found before it turns all the realm into as desolate of a frozen wasteland as Jotunheim!"

Clint didn't know where Jotunheim was, but knowing the source for the super-blizzard was already more information than SHIELD had.

"Yep, this would be a lot easier if I found my in-ear comms." Clint muttered as he tried to find where it fell, but the odds weren't good in this blizzard, "Dropped it when the frost giants were chasing me."

"I believe there is someone who can aid in locating your communications device." Thor reassured as he walked over to his horse, and Clint sighed as he glanced down to his magic bow.

Between the freak magical super-blizzard, the frost giants with their ice magics, and his own magic metal bow, Clint was prepared for more weird things to happen. So, he prepared himself for the moment that Thor was going to reveal that his horse was going to be some super-powered horse that could locate small things by scent. But no.

Somehow, it was even weirder than that.

Thor reached over to a medium-sized canvas sack sitting on the back of his horse, pulled open the top and the last thing that Clint could have expected came out: the childish voice of what appeared to be an eight-year-old girl.

"P-paimon is so fr-freezing!" the girl who was ostensibly sitting inside the sack whined as Thor looked into it.

"With luck on our side, our next pull shall include some warm clothes for you." Thor reassured her, "But for now, we require your aid in searching for a lost item."

"Paimon r-really doesn't w-want to go outside!" She stammered- her tiny pale hands trying to pull the sack's opening closed, "T-Thor! Please c-close it!"

She didn't sound like she was any older than Clint's own daughter… why did Thor take a kid along with him to fight these giants? That was incredibly irresponsible, and Clint felt his anger rise… only for him to push it back down. He needed to take a step back and look at the big picture. The girl was likely someone from around here that Thor saved.

"Forgive me, my friend." Thor apologised and sounded like he meant it too, "But we urgently need your help, you are the only one who can find the item in this blizzard."

"Muuu~ F-fine!" the girl sounded like she was audibly pouting. And out of the canvas sack, a small snowy-haired child, looking no older than five-years-old, came floating out as if gravity was just a suggestion for her. She wore a little white and pink dress and a cape that looked like a starry night sky. And wherever she flew, little motes of interconnected light like twinkling constellations appeared and disappeared in the air in her wake.

"A fairy?" Clint muttered in disbelief just as the fairy girl noticed that he was there. And with a little 'Eep!' she darted to hide behind Thor. Her wide dark purple eyes peered at him over Thor's broad shoulder- making the cowboy chuckle good-heartedly.

"Clint, may I introduce you to my travelling companion, Paimon." Thor smiled before glancing to the fairy, "Paimon. This is Clint, a bowman of great skill. Fret not, he is a good man. I can feel it."

Were all Texan cowboys this friendly and quick to trust? Or did this Thor in particular have some magic senses that made him say that? Clint wouldn't consider himself a good man… He was just a guy doing what he felt was the right thing to do.

"Erm… if Thor says so then it must be true!" Paimon floated forward to extend her hand to him, "Nice to meet'cha, Clint!"

"Yeah… nice to meet you too." Clint replied, absolutely nonplussed as he shook her tiny hand. This day just kept getting weirder and weirder and weirder.

"What did you need Paimon to find?" She asked, tilting her head, "Paimon is great at finding lost things, but uhhh… only if it's close by! It is close by, right?"

"Yeah, it should be around here somewhere." Clint nodded- gesturing to the heavy snow, "Little black earpiece that-"

And before he could finish describing it, this 'Paimon' darted around- flying here and there against the blizzard winds for a few seconds before swooping down. Her tiny palm reached into the snow and scooped up a familiar black in-ear comms piece.

"Paimon found it!" She declared- holding the comms piece over her head before flying to Clint and handing it to him.

"Thanks, let me just make a quick call to the Outpost." He thanked her while patting the snow off the little black earbud.

"SHIELD outpost, this is Agent Hawkeye." Clint spoke into the comms, and immediately got his response.

"Agent Hawkeye, you cut off for a while there…" Agent Coulson's voice once again spoke through the in-ear comms. And more importantly, the phrase 'you cut off for a while there' was a SHIELD Counter-Sign. Something to prove that he was the real Agent Hawkeye and not an audio recording. And the code-phrase for that was…

"Must have been the wind, sir." Clint spoke clearly into the comms, and he heard Agent Coulson sigh in relief.

"Good to have you back, Agent Hawkeye." Coulson replied- the relief colouring his voice as he was glad to hear Clint was safe. Because if Clint responded with 'It must have been interference,' it would have been a code-phrase that he was being held at gunpoint, and wanted to subtly clue SHIELD to send an extraction team without giving it away to anyone listening in. "Report, Agent. Have you shaken off your pursuers or dealt with them?"

"Sir, you wouldn't believe me." Clint reckoned as he glanced at Thor and Paimon.

"Try me." Coulson firmly responded- sounding amused. And Clint took a deep breath before launching into his explanation of recent events.

"A Norwegian cowboy with his enchanted S&W Model 500s arrived to fight off the Frost Giants who were here for a magical artefact that was making the blizzard. Then the cowboy's fairy helped me find my comms." Clint explained, before remembering about his new bow, "And a magic metal ball binded to me and transformed into a bow for me."

And for almost a good full minute, the comms were silent.

"Understood." Agent Coulson reassured, "I'll send a hazmat team in case there is hallucinogenic gas in the area. We'll have medical on stand-by to deal with your hallucinations. Just stay put in your location, we'll arrive soon, agent."

And Clint just sighed as the connection ended, leaving him alone with his new allies.

"They said that they'll be here soon." Clint notified the cowboy and fairy, who both broke in bright smiles at the news.

"I hope they have lots of food!" Paimon cheered- wiggling excitedly as she floated in the air, "Paimon is starving from all the cold!"

"Hah, if Volstagg was present, he would challenge you to a feasting contest!" the cowboy guffawed from one of his own references that Clint couldn't make heads or tails of.

"Paimon can take him on!" the fairy declared as she thrust her tiny fist high over her head- earning a laugh from the cowboy. Clint simply looked at them without saying anything- content to just observe from a distance. The arrival of these two was going to change the world, and Clint could already feel Director Fury's blood pressure rising, because SHIELD was going to go through some interesting times these next few days. And the director hated it when things got interesting.

And Clint could only think 'Better him than me.'

After all, he liked his home life to be nice and quiet. After this circus here in Texas, it'll be a hell of a relief to go back to his family in that quiet little rural town where nothing happened and otherworldly visitors didn't come and leave dangerous artefacts laying around.

[Nova Empire Planet C-71] (Two days later)

Klee dashed through the glowy blue portal and onto the world that she had finished bombing a few hours ago.

It was a great view too! The Sakaarian Fleet was burning and exploding everything on this world. Something about 'scorched earth tactics' and 'strategic planetary genocide.' But that mostly meant that Hev wanted Klee to make the whole world explode really good. And right there in front of her, sitting on top of this really tall tower was Hev in his huuuge metally dragon body. His long shiny metal neck turned so that his huge dragon head could look at her.

"Hev! Hev! Hev!" She called out, jumping excitedly in place- waving at him so that she was sure he could see her. He was so huge after all.

"Yes Klee?"

"I want to go to school!" She shouted up at him. And she did. She really did. She'd never been to a place where it was full of other kids too!

Hev only looked like he was really thinking it over too. And she really liked Hev for that. Not like Jean who says 'No, Klee.' right away, Hev really wants to try and let her do what she wants and make her happy. And that's why Klee really wanted Hev to be happy with her too!

"Oh? Where did you hear about school anyway? I'm quite certain that I've already gathered up most of the kids your age on this planet for the dry run of Project Fortnite."

"I met a girl at that house in Eye-Oh-Ah that you marked to have someone my age." Klee immediately burbled happily, "Lila was real fun to talk to. She liked fluffy things too, and her dad was going to give her a pony when he came back from Texas, but that was going to take a while so I gave her a Mini Jumpy Dumpty while she waited!"

"You actually went to the Barton household in Iowa? I only marked her for Project Fortnite for the giggles. But this is a convenient coincidence, because according to this Tower, having more waifus on earth may just be what I need."

"Oh!" Klee shouted in surprise as she ran to the edge of the tower and looked down, "This one looks like the upgraded Grandmaster's Tower at Sakaar!"

"It's called the Dragon Tower now. But yes, it is."

"What's the tower 'sposed to do, Hev?" She asked, and that reminded Klee of something she's been seeing a couple of times before. "And why do you keep making them on every planet we explode?"

But Hev just smiled at her and gently pat her head with his giant claw.

"Oh, just boring grown up work. Nothing to worry about."

And Klee believed him, last time she asked what the boring grown up work was, Hev had her with auntie Sylvie listening to smelly old people talk on and on about 'politics of the Nine Realms' and 'mass extortion.'

"Uh…" She hummed hesitantly while looking at her boots, "So, can Klee go to school, pretty please, Hev? Klee really wants to go!"

"Sure, why not? But only on the condition that you only use the special explosives we made together."

"You mean the one with the IFF Hevnokrenite fuses?" Klee yelled out in disbelief, "But they only make some things explode!"

"The only reason it makes only 'some' things explode is because that's the whole point of the Identify-Friend-or-Foe (IFF) feature: so that I can personally choose what your bomb explosion can affect during the time of detonation. And I had only started to enforce that measure upon you because of the incident you started the other day. I certainly did not appreciate your attempt to blow up the people apologising to you for making Johanna sick while you were all still inside my [Dragon Cabin]."

"Ehehehe… Klee forgot all about that? Uh, oopsie?" She scratched the back of her head. Then she bowed low at the waist to show that she was sorry. "Klee is really, really sorry again for almost making you explode from the inside out, Hev!"

"It's fine… Parents should be strong enough to withstand their children's less-than-intelligent antics after all. You're lucky that my Hevnokrenite is sturdier than any of your bombs, otherwise that nuke would have actually done some damage… Just don't try it again."

She nodded eagerly.

"Klee just got really angry and got carried away!" She apologised again. She will try really hard to remember this time. She always felt really bad whenever she hurts people she care about with her bombs. "Klee won't ever forget her promise to not to try to explode super nukes inside you ever again, Hev!"

Hev just gently patted her head with his giant metal claw again.

"Good girl Klee. Like I said before, Earth is very important. So, I can't have you exploding the planet too much. So, either I can choose which things and people your bombs can blow up, or you go to school without bombs at all."

"IFF Hevnokrenite fuses are fine, Hev." Klee nodded. They weren't the most explodey bombs, but if it meant that Hev felt happy if she used them, then it made Klee happy too.

"Just give me a few more days to research it and they'll be better than your normal bombs. But for now, I'll just make a call to your Auntie Mercy, and she'll help set things up with the help of her iron friend. And that means you and Johanna and maybe a few others get to spend some time together at your new school."

"Yipee!" She cried out in excitement as she wrapped her whole body around Hev's huge claw in a super hug, "You're the best Hev! I'm going to go celebrate by giving everyone on Sakaar some nice bombs!"

"Wait, stay here for a while, Klee. It's just about time."

"Oh, okay!" She chirped while smiling, just happy to be with Hev and watch the pretty fires and explosions in the distance from the top of this really tall tower. She didn't know what time it was going to be, but Klee hoped that it was something special!

And just as she was about to sit down on the edge with Hev, something really unexpected happened. Right in front of Klee's eyes, a very familiar woman appeared out of thin air laying on the metal floor of the tower. Pretty blonde hair in a ponytail. Shiny black coat. Blue eyes whipping around to look before setting on Klee.

"J-Johanna!?" Klee choked out, her mouth suddenly feeling dry.

"Klee!" Johanna yelled out as she rushed forward and swept Klee up in a tight hug. "Did you evacuate safely?"

And Klee couldn't answer. It felt like she was frozen stiff- like her mind stopped altogether. Her eyes just staring at the patch of sky over Johanna's shoulder- the blonde ponytail swaying at the corner of her eye. It felt like she still couldn't believe it: She couldn't believe that Johanna was back.

"Your emergency warp worked as intended. Klee arrived to me just in time, and we've been waiting for you to… get well for almost three whole days."

Three days… something about those words made something click in the back of Klee's mind. And Klee didn't know why, but tears welled up in her eyes as she threw her arms around Johanna as wide as she could.

"J-Johanna was really sick!" Klee blurted out between choking sobs, "And Klee was so wo-worried!"

She gripped at Johanna's coat with her small fingers- wanting to make sure that she never leaved Klee alone again.

"K-Klee really missed you!" She hiccuped- trying not to cry on Johanna's black coat that Klee thought was so nice.

"I missed you too, meine tochter." Klee heard Johanna whisper softly. And Klee didn't understand some of the words that Johanna said. But for some reason, it made her really happy hearing them anyway. But Klee didn't know why she was still crying so hard?

"It's alright to cry." Johanna reassured her as she stroked Klee's back, "It's alright."

And Klee only hugged Johanna as tight as she could- sobbing into her shoulder as if Klee had been feeling really really sad without knowing it herself. But Johanna's gentle hand was there on her back- stroking gently and leaving warm trails. And with her eyes closed like this, Klee felt like she was hugging her mom again. Felt like Klee was safe and warm and not lonely anymore.

But most of all… it felt like she never left Klee.

"It is going to be okay." Johanna whispered into her ear- just patting Klee's back with her warm hand, "Johanna is here for you, Klee. Johanna is here."

"We're here for you, Klee."

And Klee… she couldn't help but cry harder, because she really, really, really missed those feelings.

- Chapter 17: The Mystical Adventure for the Dragon's Balls End -

Chapter 18: Klee's First Day of School! soon…

…