Agents of SHIELD Season 5 Retribution
Chapter 1 getting the team together and going on the offensive
Author's notes I don't own Agents of SHIELD, just the idea for this fic, set after Season 4 and goes a lot different than what happen in the show. This story will be focusing on Phil Coulson and Melinda May as well as Maria Hill and an OC of mine Jack Williams.
This fic is not connected to my other Agents of SHIELD fic Ghosts of The Past in anyway. There is also a reference to the show 24 in this fic, plus there's a reason why this is rated M for a scene of torture in this chapter.
I'd also like to thank my good friend Fenrisulven13 for letting me borrow his OC's Nicholas Smythe, Magnus Wolfe and Benjamin Shannon. I also recommend you read Fenrisulven13's fanfics. If you like this, you'll like those as well.
Billy's Diner- outskirts of New York
A young woman entered the diner shortly before closing, and immediately knew something wasn't right. Who she was here to meet wasn't here. Several plates half-finished were on the counter, someone was here.
But it looked like they got up and left right in the middle of their meal. The server told her that one minute several people were sitting eating, when armed men showed up after a power outage, next minute they were gone and gave an description of the leader of this group of armed men.
With that Maria Hill left and went back to her car, Phil Coulson and the rest of his team were missing. She had suspects in mind and knew she needed help. Maria took out her phone and called the only man she could trust right now.
Washington DC
A tall middle aged man with black hair and blue eyes in a black suit was walking out of the local cemetery after putting flowers on a grave with tears in his eyes as he got a call of his phone and saw the caller was his ex-wife Maria Hill.
Jack Williams instantly answered the call and asked "What is it Maria?"
Maria curious said "Are you sitting down right now Jack?"
Jack replied "No. I always notice you ask me that when you're about to drop a bomb shell on me. What's going on?"
Maria hesitated before she said "You need to sit down for what I'm about to tell you Jack. It's a long story."
Jack got into his car and listened as Maria explained to him how Director Fury, had brought his best friend and one time fellow SHIELD agent back from the dead, than told him everything else that happened.
Jack was in shock once, Maria caught him up to speed and asked "Why didn't Fury want me to know about this? Was he afraid I'd come after him for putting Phil through all that, and making Melinda keep it from him. Where were they last seen?"
Maria replied "They were last seen at Billy's Diner just outside New York. I'm contacting several other former agents to help with this, anyone you want us to bring in?"
Jack immediately said "Bring in Ben Shannon. He's good in a fight, and we'll need fighters like him if we're going up against people who can appear and disappear very quickly with little evidence in their wake."
Maria was in agreement and then asked "Were you just at the cemetery?"
Jack answered "Yeah. I left two bouquets of flowers on his grave, one from each of us. I'll be in New York in a little while. I suggest we bring Stark in on this. We'll need all the help we can get."
Maria agreed with Jack and would tell Tony everything after she recruited the others for this mission.
As Jack headed to New York, he swore whoever abducted Phil, Melinda and the others part of their group would pay and die slowly.
Unknown location
Phil Coulson woke up with a start and found he wasn't in the diner with the others. He was handcuffed to a chair in a room with grey walls all around him.
Suddenly one of the walls was gone, a hologram, and several people in green and white uniforms were in front of him.
One of them said "Our leader wishes to speak with you Agent Coulson."
Coulson was soon brought to an office, all his questions about where his team were, went unanswered.
As he was escorted into the office. Coulson found himself face to face with a woman in a similar outfit to the others with green hair who said "Phil Coulson. My name is Abagail Brand. We need to talk."
Coulson was sat down in the chair across the table from Abagail and asked "Who are you people? Where am I and where are my friends?"
Abagail replied "You're in my base, known as The Peak. We are S.W.O.R.D, known as the Sentient World Observation and Response Department. We deal with alien threats to Earth, the actions of SHIELD put the secrecy of our group at risk. We can't allow that. That is why you and your friends are here and why you'll remain here for the foreseeable future."
With that Coulson was brought back to his cell as Abagail started to look through S.W.O.R.D's files on Coulson and his friends.
New York a few hours later
Jack arrived at Avengers Tower and entered the building where Maria and the rest of the team, comprised of Ben Shannon, Robert Taylor and Mike Peterson were waiting for him.
Jack asked "How long since Coulson and the others have been missing?"
Ben said "5 hours at least. No cars were used, it's like their transportation was invisible."
Taylor asked "Could they have used a Quinjet?"
Maria said "Doubtful. Mr Peterson managed to get some footage from security cameras in the diner. We have a face to one of these people, Tony is running facial recognition on him now, trying to find a name. He's dived into this, wants to find Coulson and get some answers."
Jack then asked "I heard on the news that the US government shut down SHIELD again?"
Ben saw the look in Jack's eyes and asked "What are you thinking?"
Jack explained by saying "We start up SHIELD again and tell the US we're operating without their interference. SHIELD was meant to do what it did, protect people, even if it meant defying the government at times. The cancer that was HYDRA's infiltration of our organisation has been cut out. Once we rescue Phil and the others. We get back to the way things were."
Ben and Taylor were in agreement as Maria asked "What would keep SHIELD in check to prevent us going too far?"
Jack replied "An internal affairs department. SHIELD is not just an organisation or the people behind it. SHIELD is an idea, and ideas never die."
After a few minutes of thinking, Maria and Mike agreed with the others and headed to the top floor, where Tony Stark and the rest of his team of Avengers were.
When they got there, Tony Stark was going through surveillance footage and got a name to this mystery man. Nicholas Smythe and the footage outside showed, these people were literally outside the diner one minute and the minute before that, they weren't there.
Tony said "Whoever these people are, they have advanced tech. They could be HYDRA."
Ben shook his head and said "If these people were Hydra. They'd have killed them. We've a new player on the board."
Jack remarked "It'll only be a matter of time before we remove them from the board. What do we do about the US government, they believe that agent Daisy Johnson tried to kill General Talbot. What can we do to prove them otherwise?"
Maria started to look through CCTV footage of what happened at this meeting and noticed the two from the Russian delegation were shot repeatedly by Phil and Melinda, but curiously kept moving like nothing happened to them, looking deeper, she learned one of the men was the reclusive billionaire known as Anton Ivanov the millionaire industrialist.
Jack and the others noticed this as well and knew something wasn't right, especially when Jack saw what they had, something, both he and Maria knew Fury had looked for, the Darkhold.
Once Maria explained to Tony what SHIELD knew about the Darkhold, they knew this could at least convince the government to hear them out about SHIELD's innocence, especially if they offered up another piece of meat, whoever this mysterious group was.
Jack then asked "Mr Stark, can you pull move a copy of Jeffrey Mace's autopsy report?"
Tony showed a copy of the report and Jack noticed something, while the injuries looked like they might have been by an Inhuman, they could also be done by repeated use of a hammer. SHIELD was being set up, that much was now obvious.
Jack said "Let's arrange a press conference, try and draw this group out, if they think SHIELD will continue, they might come out of hiding to silence us, and we'll be waiting,"
Ben asked "Who'll give the press conference?"
Before Maria could say anything Jack volunteered and already had in mind what to say.
As preparations were being made Maria asked Ben "How's the family?"
Ben smiled and said "Anna is not happy I'm here. Told me when I get home, I'm sleeping on the couch for a while. Jim and Liz are great as are the kids. Kono and Alicia are still on vacation in Italy, apparently they want to go on a tour of the country eating at every restaurant, or café along the way."
Maria smiled and Ben noticed a look in her eyes as she saw Jack writing the speech he'd give in a few hour's time and asked "You going to tell Jack you still love him, or do you hope staring at him like that will somehow telepathically get that message across to him?"
Maria was shocked at this and Ben said "Tell him, you deserve happiness in your life. So does he, you both need it, especially after what happened with Josh."
Maria looked away for a moment as she remember her dead son before going over to Jack and held his hand as he said with sadness in his voice "I miss him."
Maria knowing full well who he was talking about said "Me too."
2 hours later, Jack was in front of the cameras as he started his speech saying "My name is Jack Williams, at the moment I am the acting director of SHIELD. I've called you all here to address recent news reports concerning SHIELD and bring yoy the truth. Footage shows Daisy Johnson shooting US Air Force General Talbot, but this security footage, shows someone who looks like Agent Johnson, using her powers killing a lookalike, who used a gun not her powers. And the Russian delegation at the meeting somehow were shot multiple times but didn't die among them Russian Industrialist Anton Ivanov, who SHIELD has learned is the leader of the notorious hate group, the Watchdogs. SHIELD is being set up by the Watchdogs and a new group, who abducted several SHIELD agents including friends of mine. To those abductors I give this message, release my friends and others your holding prisoner within 24 hours. Failure to do so, will result in conflict between, to begin at our choosing. That is all."
With that the press conference was over, as Jack met up with the others as Tony Stark was having a teleconference with the US President and other world leaders showing them the evidence of this frame up done against SHIELD.
Tony managed to convince the world leaders of the frame up, who gave Tony the full authority of the UN panel to look into this and find those in this mysterious group.
The Peak
S.W.O.R.D Director Brand watched the press conference and ordered Nichaolas Smythe to head back down to Earth and deal with this before this situation got any more out of hand.
Meanwhile her second in command, Magnus Wolfe was shocked at what his boss was going to do, going after Jack Williams after he just made that speech announcing he'd take over leadership of SHIELD, would make his ex-wife Maria Hill come after them and if they went after her next, Tony Stark would get involved.
This time S.W.O.R.D had bitten off more than it could chew.
Meanwhile, Phil and the others were brought out of their cells as Director Brand made it clear why they were being held, SHIELD being hunted by the US government put S.W.O.R.D at risk, so to protect them, they were imprisoning them indefinitely.
Both Phil and Melinda knew one thing, before they left they contact Maria so they could meet up, if she didn't hear from them, she'd reach out to Jack, and he wouldn't stop until he found them.
An hour later outskirts of New York City
Jack was pacing around the abandoned warehouse, as the others were in positon waiting for Smythe who soon showed up with a gun in his hands and a small device in the other hand, before he could activate it, the device was shot out of his hand by Ben.
Smythe was soon surrounded and restrained as an ear piece and an odd device on his wrist were taken off him as he was searched for any more weapons.
Once the man was cuffed to a pole, Jack and Maria told the others to get back to Avengers Tower and show this what Smythe had to Tony, he'd probably be able to figure out what this tech was.
When they left Jack said to Smythe "You're going to tell us everything you know."
Smythe started to laugh as Jack took off his jacket while Maria hung back, preferring to let Jack do the questioning.
Jack Williams looked at the captive Nicholas Smythe, chained to the pole in the abandoned warehouse and said as he held a dagger in his hands "To be honest with you, Phil Coulson is more than just my friend. He's like a brother to me. Melinda May is a great friend as well. The others, any friend of theirs is a friend of mine. But you already know that, don't you? Because you probably looked up any of their associates, Fearful we'd be looking for revenge. Now, you're either not very good at what you do or you were going to come after me and Maria next, to tie up any loose ends. Only one other time have I done what I'm about to do. I killed the man who killed my baby boy as a way to get to me and Maria for arresting his brother for crimes against SHIELD. He died in agony which is exactly what I'm going to do to you do unless you tell me what I want to know."
Jack stabbed Nicholas a few times in the chest, lightly in non-vital areas of the body, as the man yelled in pain. Jack asked "Where are Phil Coulson, Melinda May and the others your group took?"
When he got no answer, Jack stabbed him again cutting a small line along his chest and said "Start talking to me! Tell me what I want to know?"
Nicholas laughed and said "They're dead. I killed them."
Jack yelled in rage as he started to punch Smythe over and over again as Maria Hill watched on nearby. Smythe gave no answers was soon a bloody mess and out cold.
Jack grabbed some smelling salts and used it to wake Smythe up and said "Let's try this again. I already know your group abducted friends of mine and their friends. You wouldn't have taken them just to kill them. Now what I want to know."
Jack stabbed Smythe several times in the chest as he said "Is the name of whoever gave you these orders. Either in your group or the US government. Give me a name and I will end this quickly, I give you my word."
Smythe spat at Jack who retorted by saying "You think you know about pain. You know nothing yet." Jack walked over to a nearby table and grabbed a container of lighter fluid and sprayed it on Smythe making him cry out in agony. Jack then yelled out "Give the name of the person in your organisation, or the US Government! Who gave you the order to abduct my friends? Give me the name!"
Jack sprayed more of the lighter fluid making Smythe scream some more as he yelled "Give me a name!" Smythe said nothing and Jack threw away the empty container as he got a blow torch and used it on Smythe's knife wounds as he yelled "Give me the name of the person who ordered you to abduct my friends from that diner! Give me the name! Now!"
Smythe was silent for a moment before he said "I did it on my own with my men!"
Jack grabbed Smythe by the neck and said "You're lying. You didn't have the authority. I want the name! Give me the name!"
Smythe said "My name is Nicholas Smythe."
Jack used the blow torch again for over 20 seconds making Smythe scream in total agony and still got no answer. Jack headed over to Maria, threw the blow torch at a faraway wall in frustration as he said to his ex-wife "This isn't working."
Maria then saw something in Smythes pocket and grabbed, it. It was a mobile phone, she tried to activate it and saw the SIM Card was gone.
Jack asked Smythe "Where's the SIM card for your phone?" when they got no answer, they looked at the ground, seeing where it might have fallen, when Jack looked at Smythe and knew where it was as did Maria.
Maria said "You idiot. You swallowed it."
Jack went over with his knife and whispered to Smythe "This is for my friends." As he stabbed the man in the stomach to get to his insides and find the SIM card which killed Smythe very quickly.
Soon Jack found it, Maria cleaned it, before it was put in the phone and the last call dialled was rang. It led to a voicemail that said "You've reached the mobile number of US Secretary of State Ross. We can't take your call right now. If you leave your name and number. We'll get back to you as soon as we can."
Authors notes well that's chapter 1 completed please let me know what you think of it. Read and review no flames though ok.