One-shot || ML × Avengers || Crossover

AN: I am simply too intrigued by this idea to let it go XD
This is really old, but I might write more in the future?

Recruitment

It was a quarter past ten, and Marinette finally reached the bakery entrance. The chilly spring night was hardly silent in Paris, but it was familiar and calming as she tried finding the door keyhole in the dark. Having just finished babysitting, the teenager was a bit groggy and tired as the lock finally clicked and she stepped into her home. She hummed some and closed and locked the door behind her. When she reached for the light panel, movement caught her eye.

Marinette tensed suddenly, holding her breath as a shadow moved stealthily at the corner of her vision. She whipped her head around, fear flitting across her face as the larger figure loomed in front of the moonlit window of the dark bakery.

She clenched her keys tightly and narrowed her eyes at the large stranger as she quickly tried to think up a plan to escape or fight back without Tikki. She stepped back, wariness seeping into every fiber of her being.

Despite facing down akumas, she thought a simple intruder wouldn't be so terrifying. However, she wasn't Ladybug now. She had no mask, no magical suit. She was alone.

"What are you doing in here?!" Marinette brazenly questioned the man who had yet to move, switching on a light so that she could see him better. His posture screamed authority, and as her vision readjusted to the dim florescent light, the young woman finally saw the finer details of the stranger. Bald. Dark-skinned. Outfitted in black clothes.

An...eyepatch?

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng." His voice was firm and articulate, and his single eye raked across her smaller form like a large tiger scrutinizing its prey.

The dark-haired superhero swallowed hard; her heart rate spiked. Dread weighed heavily in her stomach, and she quickly felt sick. This man…did he know?

"What do you want?" She squeezed the keys she held even harder. The jagged ridges were pressed uncomfortably into her palm while her facial expression remained determined in the face of the unknown.

The man moved and outstretched his hand. He touched the light switch behind him near the door. She held her breath and squinted her eyes as the lights turned on.

"Sorry for the intrusion, Ms. Dupain-Cheng, but I'm afraid there's no time for formalities." He told her in mildly accented French, but it was clear he was a foreigner. "My name is Nick Fury, the director of a top secret agency called SHIELD - and we need your help, Ladybug."