S.H.I.E.L.D.'s alarm sounded at midnight, sharp but restrained. It was not a global crisis, but multiple, scattered, and weird local events.
"Gotham City (Note: This should be the corresponding city of Marvel Universe, such as a district or other fictional city of New York, but for the convenience of understanding, this name is used temporarily)
Thirteen coma incidents were reported. The victims had no external injuries, but no activity could be detected in their brains, as if they had been... drained of consciousness."
The voices of Maria·Hill reported in the encrypted channel.
"London Same, seven cases. Cairo Five cases. Mumbai Nine cases."
Natasha·Romanoff quickly added, "The pattern is consistent: night, alone, momentarily comatose. No witnesses, no signs of forced entry."
Bruce·Banner enlarged medical scan image:
"It is not a known technological or magical means. The neural pathways are instantly cut off in some extremely precise way and... extracted. Like picking a ripe fruit."
The holographic image of Tony·Stark frowned. "Energy signature?"
"Extremely weak, almost integrated with the ambient background radiation," Banner shook his head
"But there are traces... of dark creatures. Very ancient."
Steve·Rogers looked solemn. "Vampire? But their methods are not so... clean and neat."
"Not an ordinary vampire," a deep voice came from the door.
Blade Erik·Brooks, wearing a black leather jacket, walked into the command center, his eyes under his sunglasses sweeping across the audience, "This is 'harvest'.
Things from the deeper depths of Shadow Dimension are much more dangerous than old antiques like Dracula."
"Shadow Dimension?" Strange Master's portal opened at the side, and he stepped out with a serious look on his face.
"Those legendary parasites that feed on the energy of quintessence of consciousness? They usually cannot maintain their physical form in our dimension for long periods of time."
"Usually not," Blade nodded, throwing out a twisted, translucent creature remains, like a melted black shadow, still twitching slightly
"Unless someone gives them an 'anchor', or... there is some kind of 'gap' in our dimension that makes it easier for them to exist."
The number of abnormal coma incidents around the world is still increasing sporadically, and panic has begun to spread in the underground world, but mainstream society has not yet noticed it.
Avengers disperses its actions and cooperates with Blade and Midnight Sons (Note: Marvel's supernatural hero team, borrowing the concept here)
Set up defenses and patrol in major cities, trying to catch these invisible hunters.
However, these "Night Harvesters" are like real shadows, coming and going without a trace. Avengers's high-tech equipment and magic detection often only catch a ripple after they succeed.
Until one night, London.
A reaper pounces on its prey in a hidden alley - a nurse who returns home late.
But this time, it hit a golden magic shield that suddenly lit up. Strange and Wang stepped out of the shadow, and Bands of Seraphim wrapped around the shadow like a spiritual snake.
Almost at the same time, Black Widow and Hawkeye's special sonic arrows and ultraviolet light bombs were shot down from the roofs on both sides.
Blade fell from the sky like a ghost, and the silver sword slashed down with a sharp roar.
The reaper let out a silent scream, twisted his body to avoid most attacks, and took a knife from Blade, causing black "blood" to splash.
It seemed to be enraged, and no longer tried to escape, but turned into a black smoke and rushed towards the nearest king.
Just when Wang held up the defensive spell and the black smoke was about to touch him--
The black smoke suddenly solidified.
It was not frozen by magic, but rather like it had hit an absolutely invisible wall, and its shape was even briefly distorted due to the momentary blockage.
The next second, a hand with slender fingers penetrated the black smoke and shook it gently.
There was no sound, no light effect. The condensed and dangerous dark energy body, like a punctured balloon, quietly Oblivion
Not even a trace of ashes was left.
Xiao Han appeared in the middle of the alley at some point, wearing casual clothes with obvious displeasure on his face.
He shook his hand as if he had just crushed an insect to death.
"In the middle of the night," he glanced at everyone present, his tone filled with disgust, "The noise you made was louder than that thing."
Strange was stunned. "You... how did you find it?" They worked hard to set up this trap.
Xiao Han pointed to his ear, with an expression that said, "No need to ask." "The frequency emitted by this thing is like fingernails scratching glass."
He was obviously referring to the kind of "noise" that acts on the spiritual level and is incomprehensible to ordinary people.
Blade looked at Xiao Han warily, holding the knife tightly. "You completely eliminated it? This kind of parasite usually requires energy of a specific frequency..."
Xiao Han interrupted him, as if he was too lazy to explain, "Is there anything else? Let's solve it once and for all. I'll go back to sleep."
As if in response to him, three more weak, equally unpleasant energy fluctuations came from the other side of the city -
Apparently other reapers were alerted or still active.
Xiao Han's brows furrowed again.
The next moment, he disappeared.
A second later, he reappeared.
"Okay," he said calmly, "Quiet now."
Strange, Wang, Natasha, Clint, Blade: "???"
The voice of Friday reported to all Avengers in shock through the built-in communication of the Tony armor:
"Sir... all similar abnormal energy signals globally... disappeared at the same time. Completely disappeared."
There was dead silence in the alley.
Xiao Han yawned, seemingly unaware of everyone's astonished gazes. He glanced at Blade: "Next time, this little bug, don't make such a big noise."
In a flash of golden light, he disappeared, leaving behind a group of supernatural experts and superheroes looking at each other.
Blade slowly put the knife into its sheath, with an unreadable expression under his sunglasses. "... who is he?"
Strange rubbed his eyebrows and tried to sense the remaining spatial fluctuations, but found nothing. "A... neighbor who thought we were too noisy catching bugs."
Although the incident was resolved in a way that no one expected, the questions are deeper:
Why can these Night Harvesters suddenly appear on the earth in large numbers? What is the "gap" or "anchor" that allows them to exist?
Will more and more powerful dimensional parasites be attracted?
No one knows the answer.
Xiao Han, on the other hand, has returned to the Malibu Villa's bedroom, turned off Super Hearing, and is ready to enjoy a truly quiet night.
As for where do those "little bugs" that are easily crushed to death come from? Why do they come?
He doesn't care at all.