Nicholas Fury was not having a good day. It was not because the New Mexico fiasco showed that there were so called gods, or even that the gods were part of Norse mythology. It was because the gods were aliens. Fury knew about the supernatural, at least in passing, after all, there was a reason for his lack of aging, and it wasn't the Infinity Serum bullshit that was in his files (if that formula existed, he would have used it on plenty of good people now lost to time, especially his predecessor and mentor, Director Peggy Carter). He already was conscious of the existence of pagan gods, vengeful spirits, supernaturally mutated humans (wendigos) and the like, beings that were supernaturally superhuman. The good thing about those creatures was that they had supernatural weaknesses that could be exploited, and that there were also people who were aware of them and protected the general populace from their attacks. The knowledge that there were other superhuman beings, with advanced technology that outgunned humans to the point that it wasn't even funny was just a bit too much, since unlike supernatural foes, there weren't any Achille's heels in alien technology to exploit, or if there were, SHIELD was still unaware of them.
Naturally, that was when his day got worse. Although one could argue that it also got better. Between one moment and the next, the perfectly nice empty air in front of his desk was replaced by a distinctly rumpled 12-year-old with white hair in a single braid. Quite understandably, he shot her as an intruder. The bullet went through the girl, and a voice protested from the ground obscured by his desk, "Hey! I come in peace! Can you be slightly less trigger happy when I get up? Thank the gods that I used a Mistform."
Noting that the being he shot was indeed similar to a hologram, Fury aimed his gun at where the origin of the voice seemed to be, before directing the girl to stand up. After she did so, he pointed the gun at her, and said,
"Give me a reason not to shoot you as an intruder right now." He left out the part of him having his finger on the emergency button to summon guards.
Recovering admirably fast, the child smirked and said, "Because I come as an ambassador and ally. Tell me, have you heard of demigods?" Then she frowned ruining the impression of control, "of course, there are magicians as well, the scribes of Per Ankh, although they're organized into Nomes instead of the Greek and Roman camps, Greek and Roman as well as Egyptian are the two currently existent Divine Pantheons, thank the divinities above, imagine the mess it would cause if there were three Norse pantheons, oops, sorry, ADHD. My name's Heaven by the way, Heaven Crow slash Khionesdottïr slash Lokisdottïr, yes, that Loki, as in Thor's brother Loki."
Crow stopped to catch a breath, "we're currently recovering from fighting a civil war as well as a war against Gaea at the moment so it might take a while before we become capable of providing much assistance. The good news is it'll also take some time before you'll actually need our help by the way. Oh, and here's the introductory handbook."
The girl was rather straightforward, which was enjoyable, but still, "Why should I trust you?"
"As a goodwill gesture, the unidentified double agents are Monster Donut employees, AKA HYDRA agents. Yes, HYDRA still exists, and is in SHIELD to the highest degree. As in Alexander Pierce is HYDRA. We've only managed to find him out because the children of Hypnos came across his dreams accidentally. Nico di Angelo and Walt have been talking to the dead and some of them have spoken of a HYDRA educational center called the Red Room. That's the only base we're certain is HYDRA, but we don't know where it is, since the eliminated students didn't know where they were, so that's that. Hopefully a dead employee or two will be found, curse the Ancient Laws and immortal bureaucracy, so that Nico will be able to find out its location so we can investigate.
So, what say you to an alliance?"
Fury considered. Any party that could bypass the security of a secret, non-existent base was most possibly one powerful enough to not need subterfuge to achieve its purposes. And if HYDRA was reviving the same facility that trained the Black Widow before Romanoff burnt it to the ground, that meant trouble. He opened the handbook and scanned through the first few pages. Apparently, the demigods were little different than mutants, although suppressants didn't work on them and they had a natural partial immunity to mental manipulation, as well as a concealment mechanism known as the Mist. Their parents were Powerful with a capital P but their influence on mortal affairs was limited. That was why there were demigods. Children literally born for war, although they were also normal teenagers whose extracurricular activities just happened to consist of saving the world.
"Yes."
"Great! Don't worry about bugs, the Mist prevents them from working properly, and though I'm no daughter of Hecate, I'm quite good at making sure no one sees what they shouldn't, though you might want to do something about the bullet hole, I'm good at illusions, but someone's bound to notice eventually."
"I see."
Nick Fury would not press innocent children into service and go against the law, but considering that these children had already gone through wars, had apparent divine origins backing them, and his own organization was compromised by their enemy, he didn't feel remorseful about utilizing the resources offered.
"You're a legacy of Nemesis you know, or don't you remember the woman who promised foresight and insight in exchange for half your sight? The 'an eye for an eye' thing? Also, you have a grandniece, her name's Petra, and she's a child of Neptune, one of the Big Three."
"You said that the Red Room was recruiting. I'm thinking of sending a sleeper in there as a student."
Forest green eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Better send two. I can play off being Loki's child, and Petra would stand a triple chance of being noticed and targeted. So that's why Nyx gave me this."
Out of a pocket, the girl produced a small square of folded paper. Unfolding it once, twice, a total of five times, which should have been impossible, it became a A4 sized file filled with elegant, but easily legible handwriting. On the cover were the words Petra Fury in some sort of fancy script.
