"I may have a …ally that would fight for us," Bucky stated out of the blue, unusual for him to be the one to speak first.

"Really? Who is it?"

"That's the thing, he's a little, uh, unusual and a last-minute resort."

"You say it like he's some kind of serial killer" Sam joked. When Bucky didn't respond, Sam started to freak out, just a little.

"I was kidding! He isn't actually a serial killer, is he?!" Bucky just sighed while Cap drove.

"He's more along the lines of a killer vigilante." It was silent in the car for a few seconds

"I vote no," Sam stated

"Good thing your vote doesn't count." Bucky shot back. It was silent again.

"Will he help us?" Steve spoke up for the first time.

"Yes." Busy stated with no hesitation.

"Do you trust him?"

"With my life." Sam sighed, knowing where this was headed.

"I guess it's time to pick up our resident vigilante."

It was a normal day for Kaneki. The cafe was pretty silent at three o'clock, and Kaneki wanted nothing more to be done for the day. He had been feeling anxious all day, and he knew it was going to catch up with him sooner or later. The bell rung, signifying new customers.

"Hello," Kaneki turned to greet them, "Welcome to-" He stopped, wide-eyed when he saw who was at the entrance.

"Bucky?" And behind him, chatting with a darker-skinned man, was the famous Captain himself, "What are you doing here with…."
"Kaneki? Do you know these men?" Sarah, his boss, came out of the kitchen.

"No-"

"Yes," Bucky interrupted, "We're old friends." And like the little shit he was, Bucky slung an arm around the white-haired man and smiled. Sarah eyed them both.

"Since there are not many costumers, I'll give you ten minutes to catch up, but after that, back to work!" Kaneki gave a nod and led Bucky and his entourage to the back of the cafe, where there was a small private room. Once there, Kaneki turned and faced the three men.

"Not that I don't appreciate a visit every now and then, but last I heard, you were a wanted man," he pointed at Bucky, "And you're a superhero." He said, completely ignoring the other guy.

"We're kind of in a tight spot." Captain America spoke up, the proceeded to tell their story. By the end, Kaneki was pinching the bridge of his nose.

"This doesn't explain why you want me. I didn't want anything to do with the government. You know this." the whitenette was referring to Bucky, who grimaced in response.

"We're desperate." He tried explaining.

"No shit, why else would you come to me if you weren't?"

"What do you mean by that?" Sam asked, confused. Kaneki looked at Bucky in surprise.

"Did he explain anything about me to you?"

"He said you were along the line of a 'killer-vigilante?'" Kankei growled, facing said assassin.

"You brought them here without explaining anything?"

"I didn't think it was important."

"Of course it is! I don't want the attention of the government. If they knew I existed, they would…" He trailed off, lost in thought.

"Why? What would the government do?" Captain asked, worried.

"What I'm going to tell you stays in complete confidence, ok? Bucky trusts you, so I guess I will too."

"I'm really not liking the sound of this." Sam commented, "Shut up," Bucky responded.

"I'm not human," Kaneki stated.

"Ok? I've met aliens before." Cap stated.

"No, I mean I've always lived on earth, but I'm not human."

"If you're not human," Sam caught on, "Then, what are you?"

"I'm what's called a ghoul. I may look human, but you can think of me as the top predator."

"What does that mean?"

"That means I'm a killer vigilante because I have to be."

"You need to kill to survive?"

"Somewhat. I need humans to survive." Understanding dawned on Sam's face.

"Shit, shit. Why did you bring us here?" He almost shouted at Bucky.

"Because Kaneki is a good guy."

"Can someone explain to me what's going on?" Cap asked.

"He's a cannibal." Sam pointed at the ghoul in question, who just sighed.

"it's really not cannibalism if we're not the same species." Cap's face paled. He had fought all sorts of monsters, but this, this was out of his comfort zone.

"What?"

"Look, it's really not that hard to understand. I am a ghoul. I can only eat one thing, and that's, unfortunately, one of the most populated species on the planet."

"You recommended something that literally consumes human flesh to help us fight?"

"I only eat rapists and serial killers if that helps?"

"Strangely enough, no." Sam snickered, he couldn't help it. The situation was so strange that it was just ridiculous.

"Why don't we just invite him along? As long as he promises not to eat the other team, I'm sure he's fine." Kaneki looked at him in shock, and Cap just sighed, done with life. Bucky looked smug.

"Alright, son. How would you like to fight for us?" Cap held out his hand. Kaneki smiled and took it, all hesitation and doubts gone.

"I'd be an honor."

Although, once they got to the car, Kaneki couldn't believe his eyes.

"This going to be a long trip, isn't it?

"Yup." Falcon, as Kaneki had learned he called himself, replied. The ghoul hung his head in defeat.

The meeting at the parking garage, for lack of a better word, was a complete disaster.

After Hawkeye introduced Ant-Man, Cap tried to do the same for Kaneki. Once Kaneki came into view, he and Hawkeye met eyes. "Well shit," Kaneki muttered before Hawkeye bought out a handgun and shot him three times in the chest. The ghoul stumbled back but otherwise, appeared unhurt after Clint stopped shooting. Cap, Bucky, and Sam were all yelling and trying to get Clint to stand down, who's eyes were wide in fear.

"Why did you invite a fucking demon here?!" That stopped the trio short.
"What do you mean?" Cap asked after they had subbed the archer, Kaneki wisely kept his distance.

"That, that right there is a fucking demon summoned straight from the depths of hell! I saw him rise in a fucking summoning circle, from the blood of three young girls a group of cultists just killed!"

"What the fuck?" The three turned to Kaneki, who was looking anywhere but them in obvious guilt.

"What happened?" Buck asked.

"Well, I was summoned in a summing circle. I was in the middle of a fight, right after getting stabbed through the eye, mind you, and then all of a sudden, I was in the middle of a circle of humans, covered in blood that was not mine. These guys then told me they were my new master and that I would have to do their bidding, I think. The details were a little fuzzy, especially since you know, I had a hole running through my head. So, I got just a little mad, and, uh, attacked thew cultist, and then I, uh. There's no easy way to say this-"

"He then ate them, he had tentacles coming out of his back and he was feasting on the cultists. In was like smoothing out of a horror movie."
"WHAT?" Ant-Man shouted, backing away in fright.

"Ya, so that's what happened." Sam started snickering.

"Damn, does this happen with everyone you meet?" And the tension somehow dissipated, but not fully gone.

"So," Clint started casually," You invited a man-eating monster to fight with us?"

"I only eat rapists and serial killers if that helps?"

"And cultists apparently."

"Shut up Sam, no one asked you."

"Well, whatever." Clint sighed. "I'd like to say I've dealt with weirder, but that gave me nightmares for years."
As they were walking back to their respective cars. Kaneki had a thought.
"That red-haired woman, who was with you," He addressed Clint, "Will she be there?" Clint, ever the prankster, had a wicked grin on his face when he turned back to the ghoul.

"I just had the best and worst idea ever."

They were at the airport, this spider kid had just stolen caps shield. Kaneki saw Cap nod and knew it was his turn. Silent, he crept up to the Black Widow, as she was called. The women from Budapest. He felt somewhat bad doing this, but Clint insisted. He had been trying to scar Natasha for years, and this would take the cake, Clint said. He moved towards her as a predator moves towards its prey. Once he was behind her, he went up to her ear and whispered, "Hello," grinning from ear to ear. The woman spun around and gave a short scream once she saw who was behind her. That got the rest of the group's attention on him.
"Holy shit! how did he get this close to us?" Ironman exclaimed as Kaneki laughed. The whitenette surprised everyone when he almost disappeared from their vision, and ended up beside Falcon.

"Demon," Natasha mumbled, visually shaken. "That's a demon." She said louder.

"Whoa, no need to be hasty," Ironman commented.

"I saw him kill and eat five cultists after rising from the blood of three dead women." Natasha snapped, "What could it be then a demon."

Sam slung his arm over the young man, while the other side stared at him in horror.

"Your life sucks, but it's pretty funny at the same time." He said.

"I'm glad my life amuses you."

"It's just," Sam continued, "You managed to make three of the scariest people on the planet terrified of you in, like, two accidents."

"And how is eating three men accidental?" Tony asked, clearly shaken.

"I had just been stabbed through the eye? And needed to recover? And was starving?"
"You couldn't have just eaten a hamburger, instead of cannibalism?"

"It's not cannibalism if we're not the same species, but that's beside the point."

"Um, its really not-"

"I came here to fight, and none of you fight, I'm going home."

"Again, not after that confession. Also, kid, you're benched. I'm not having you fight against a monster like that."

"But !"

Clint came up and stood beside Kaneki, but not too closely.

"Accept it, You're forever labeled a monster after eating three measly killer cultists."

Kaneki gave him a deadpanned look.

"I can only eat your kind. Of course, he called me a monster. Also, you were there too, why are you still talking to me?"

"Are none of you concerned you have a literal monster, villain, thing fighting on your team?" Iron Man asked, flabbergasted.

"Villain? I prefer Vigilante." Kaneki muttered.

"Well kid, cannibalism doesn't earn brownie points to anyone."

"It's not like I have a choice." Kaneki snapped, fed up.

"Hold up, where'd cap go?" Ironman asked. the sound of roaring came from behind them, and the group of assembled heroes turned to see Cap and Bucky in a jet rising in the air. They gave a small wave and were off.

"Well shit," Ironman muttered.

"Time to run," Clint whispered.

"Not so fast!" Ironman shouted at the other group.

"You guys aren't leaving here! Especially you Hannibal!" He pointed at the annoyed ghoul.

"Not a cannibal." He muttered, but no one cared. Actually, he was, but no one needed to know.

"Look, Tony, we didn't fight. No one got hurt. Let's just go on our separate ways and pretend this didn't happen."Clint peacefully raised his hands.

"I'll consider it if you give us the cannibal."

"This is why I didn't want to get involved," Kaneki muttered.

"Well, you're here now, Hannibal. Get over with it. You're coming with us to be detained."

"How about, no?"

"Unfortunately, that's not an option."

"Look, I've never hurt any innocents. Besides mentally scaring a few of your allies," He got a sharp elbow to the gut from one of those mentally scared people.

"You basically just confessed to murder," Tony answered back sarcastically.

"You think a group of heroes will let you go after that?"

"Look, I don't ask to be transported to this dimension-"

"Wait, dimension?!"

"Why else do you think you've never heard pf my species?"

"Species?"

"For crying out loud." Kaneki was so done with this whole situation, "Yes! I'm a ghoul! My species literally can only eat humans! Anything else will effectively poison me!"

"That's kinda cool. How doesn't that work? You look the same, but is your biological makeup different than ours?" The spider boy rapidly shot off questions, somehow standing right beside the ghoul without anyone noticing.

"Yes. I have one more organ than humans. You don't want to see what to does-"

"Actually, I do."

"Maybe later."

"Anything else?"

"My tongue has a special enzyme that is part of what prevents me from consuming human food."

"Woah, really?"

"Yes. Everything I try to eat that's not human flesh tastes gross. Try eating rotting garbage and that might give you some insight."

"Can you drink anything, or is it only blood?" The rest of the superheroes could only watch as the two youngest members of their group were actively walking away from them, together. In close proximity.

"Wait, Spider boy, get away from him!"

"Its Spiderman . And Kaneki's nice! Don't be mean."

"Don't be mean-" Tony sounded strangled. "He admitted to eating humans!"

"Because he can't eat anything else!" Peter shouted back, then ignored the protesting adults as he went back to conversing with the ghoul.

"I'm gone." And with that, the silent Black Panther left.

"Sorry Tony," Rhodes put a comforting hand on Ironman's shoulder. "But I think we lost this one." The aforementioned man just grumbled. The billionaire looked around, seeing that the other team had disappeared in the time he was distracted by the ghoul. He realized it was just him and Rhody standing in the empty airport before shooting off in panic the direction Peter went. He found the boy scribbling in a notebook he somehow acquired in the lobby of the airport. He breathed a sigh of relief at seeing the teen safe and not eaten.

"Let's go home kid."

Two months later, a new coffee shop opened in Queens. At the same time, a new vigilante arrived on the scene of New York's vast underground. They called him Eyepatch, a name Sam laughs about to this day. Tony, on the other hand, was not as happy at this development but was content to ignore it when he heard Peter talk about his new crime-fighting partner and his rapid decline in injuries. As long as he kept Peter safe, Tony supposed he could turn a blind eye just this once.