S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, Triskelion.
Director Nick Fury was buried under a mountain of classified reports when a sudden knock disrupted the silence.
"Come in," he said without looking up.
The door burst open. Maria Hill stepped in, her pace brisk, her face uncharacteristically tense.
"Fury, we've got a situation. A big one."
Fury finally looked up, frowning. It was rare to see Hill rattled. She was a Level 10 agent, one of the few people with full access to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most sensitive data. Calm and calculated, she had seen her fair share of supernatural disasters. If she was shaken, it meant something serious.
"Talk."
"There was a massive gang shootout in Harlem an hour ago. But it wasn't just the usual street brawl. A new group—calling themselves the Vongola Family—moved in and declared full control over the district."
As she spoke, Hill pulled out a USB drive and plugged it into Fury's desk projector.
"This is surveillance footage taken during the encounter," she said, clicking the remote.
The wall lit up with grainy security cam footage. Two large groups faced each other on a crumbling Harlem street. On one side: burly African-American gangsters, armed to the teeth with M16s, AK-47s, even RPGs.
On the other side…
Fury squinted.
Men and women in sleek black suits. Some wore fedoras. The scene looked like something out of a prohibition-era mafia flick—except more surreal. There were people of all races, old men barely able to walk, even a toddler in a miniature suit carrying a bazooka almost twice his size.
"Is that… a baby with an anti-tank rifle?" Fury blinked. "You're joking."
"Wish I was," Hill muttered.
Fury continued watching. The suit-clad individuals had no visible firearms. Most of them wore flashy rings and walked like they didn't have a care in the world.
"The black gang is identified as the Savage Serpents," Hill explained. "The others call themselves the Vongola Family."
Fury rubbed his forehead. "You're telling me an Italian mafia cosplay squad just walked into Harlem and—what, challenged the top three gangs to a turf war?"
"And won. Watch."
In the footage, the Serpents opened fire first. A full five minutes of relentless gunfire. The Vongola dropped like flies—or so it seemed. But as the smoke cleared, things took a bizarre turn.
From behind the gang leader, a tall, blue-haired youth with a long ponytail appeared out of thin air, wielding a glowing trident. Lucian Black.
Fury hit pause.
"Run that back."
Hill rewound the tape. Fury focused in. Lucian had been walking in the second row of the Vongola group, flanked by six others.
At the front was a young man with orange hair and calm eyes—Tsunayoshi Sawada. And on his shoulder, the same toddler in a suit, watching silently.
"That kid in front. He's the boss. The rest beside him are his guardians. Core members."
Fury's frown deepened. "If that one with the trident has powers… then the rest probably do, too."
Hill nodded. "Lucian Black—confirmed illusionist. His power? Large-scale hallucination and spatial displacement. What looked like a massacre was just an illusion. The dead Vongola members reappeared—behind every Serpent—with guns pointed at their heads."
Fury watched the moment unfold. Lucian dissolved into mist once, then reappeared again behind the Serpents' boss, impaling him through the shoulder and pinning him to the ground with supernatural precision.
"What the hell are we dealing with here…?"
Hill remained silent for a moment, then said, "Full-scale illusion-based combat. Reality manipulation. And we've confirmed that the other core members show signs of pyrokinetic control, time dilation, and even beast summoning."
Fury exhaled slowly.
"Contact every intel source we have. I want dossiers on every one of these freaks. Especially Lucian Black and their leader—Tsunayoshi Sawada."
He stared at the paused image—Tsuna at the front, serene as a monk, while chaos erupted behind him.
"Let's find out if this 'Vongola Family' is a threat to national security—or worse, something global."