Written on the Subway Walls

by lurknomoar

Nick Fury, the best guerilla artist in New York city, hires six very different kids to create the greatest street art the world has ever seen. Some of them do it for the money, some for the fame, one of them is just trying to find his brother, but all of them find more than they expected, including old demons, neo-nazi gangs, and art that is too true to be good.

1. Nick Fury's Story

Author's Note: Can you still call it a notfic if it is longer than 10K? I think not, that's why I decided to post this series of snippets about the avengers as graffiti artists.

Nick Fury is the leader of a street art /guerrilla art initiative, known as the SHIELD Project. (Streets and 'Hoods Imagining an Electric Life's Design) He had a difficult childhood and youth, he was a gang member, and on the borderline of getting involved in organised crime. Once, he got in a fight, and was beaten almost to death, but in retrospect, he's glad that it happened. Had he won the fight, he would have gone to prison, and the other man would be dead. Instead, he was hospitalised, and lost one eye. The local charity named Marvel Institute helped him get back on his feet. Eventually, he became an art teacher in a Brooklyn high school. He enjoys his job, and despite his strictness, all the students think he is cool. He suspects it's because of the eyepatch.

But that's only his dayjob. He runs the SHIELD Project, because he loves street art, and because he thinks it can be a way of giving back to the community. He already did things like guerrilla planting, or placing stickers with messages everywhere, but now he wants to do something more monumental. He has experience with tagging from his youth, and he sets out to recruit the six best young graffiti artists from Brooklyn. As their headquarters, he chooses a huge empty warehouse somewhere in the fictional outskirts of Brooklyn, knowing that they will eventually cover its insides in graffiti.

Maria Hill is an art student at NYU, and Nick Fury's right hand. Her primary duty is location scouting, she roams New York in her ancient little blue Honda. Her driving is sure, but fast enough to give even Fury a heart attack. Her own projects are sculptures, mostly with mechanical-military themes, if she got the funding, she could build them in monumental sizes like she wants to, not the miniatures she is forced to do now.

Phil Coulson is also an art student at NYU. He is also central to the SHIELD project, taking care of the financial aspects, acquiring materials, and doing his best to cover everyone's asses legally should they get caught. He designs cards, trying to convince his professors that applied art isn't inherently low-brow. He is in a passionate long-distance relationship with a cellist who lives in Portland. The name of and gender of the cellist is unknown to everyone but him.